From; Brenda Walsh Ministries.
Bargaining with God
It’s easy to talk about how wonderful God is and how much you love Him when everything is going smoothly in your life. But it is when you’re faced with a crisis that your faith is truly tested, especially if you are not receiving the answer you want and when you wanted it. Perhaps that’s when you’re tempted to start bargaining with God in an attempt to manipulate Him to give you what you want. “I’ll stop swearing if you will just let my child live,” “I’ll give you more offerings if you’ll stop this foreclosure on my house,” or “I promise to start going to church regularly if you heal me from this cancer,” and on and on. But trying to make a deal with God or tell Him how to answer your prayers is not how prayer works. It’s hard to be patient when you are suffering. The devil tempts you to think that because God doesn’t intervene and give you the miracle you demanded that He doesn’t love you. But this isn’t the time to start finding fault with God or blaming Him because of your crisis. It is going through your toughest trial that you need to trust God the most–especially His love for you and His perfect timing! When faced with a crisis, have faith that God will answer according to what is best for you. Psalm 34:17-18 tells us, “When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.” Remember, God loves you more than anyone else possibly could and will always act in your best interest, so put your full faith and trust in God... starting today! Text: Psalm 86:1-13, Isaiah 41:10, Proverbs 3:5-6, 1 Peter 5:7