When God Doesn't Fix It: Lessons You Never Wanted to Learn, Truths You Can't Live Without

by Laura Story

I no longer believe the myth that trials are a curse. Trials are an opportunity. They are an invitation to do good works to glorify our Father in heaven, to transform our lives from the inside out, and to drive us into the arms and footsteps of Jesus.

So every time I felt God had betrayed me, I would go back to the Bible to search for the promise or commitment that God had broken. The problem was, I couldn’t find any verse that said he owed me anything. Or a verse that said if I was good enough, I deserved something. I began to realize that my disappointment with God wasn’t something he’d done to me; it was something I’d done to him. I had put conditions on our relationship that were never meant to exist. I had a sense of entitlement. I thought I deserved better. But I don’t. Nowhere in Scripture does God say that if we’re good, then he’ll be good to us. In fact, the Bible says the opposite. It says we’re not good, yet he is good to us. The more I studied Scripture, the more I learned that I was not as good as I thought I was.

Even during your darkest trials God is waiting with outstretched arms for you to come into his presence. Take a step in his direction and let his light lead you to the joy that can only be found in him.

We often think about worship as the songs we sing in church, but the truth is that worshipping God is about surrender. Surrendering to God’s will when it doesn’t match ours or when we’re too impatient to wait for him. Surrendering that which is most important to us. And surrendering our personal story to live out our part in God’s greater story. Worship is surrendering everything for God, valuing God so much that we’re willing to let everything else go.

After a lifetime of learning who God is, Abraham finally surrendered himself in obedience. He stopped insisting that he write his own life story and instead sacrificed his desires to God. He was willing to obey, because he understood that worshipping the Giver was greater than worshipping the gift he’d been given. His most faith-filled moment involved letting something go.

God sent Jesus not only to redeem people but to redeem all things. So just as Jesus came to heal our broken relationship with God, he also came to heal the consequences of the broken world we live in. That’s why Jesus had such a sense of urgency to heal the hurting. Life was hopeless and dark for those who couldn’t physically see. Life was even more hopeless and dark for those who couldn’t see God. Jesus had not only the power but also the compassion to bring his healing light into the darkness of both impairments. His primary role was to heal our broken relationship with God—to bring us out of spiritual darkness. But as we saw earlier, the spiritually blind Pharisees refused to believe in his divinity. To prove he was there to do his Father’s work, Jesus demonstrated God’s power by healing the physically blind.

The betrayal and disappointment they felt was real, but the promises they thought he’d broken were not real. In their minds, they’d made a bargain with God that they’d do something he wanted if he would do something they wanted in return. But there’s a big difference between a bargain that we initiate and a promise that is found in God’s Word. As gently as I could, I would help them see that their disappointment didn’t come from God breaking a promise but from their own false expectations. They expected God to do what they wanted him to do, to be obedient to their commands. When he wasn’t, they were disappointed and unhappy with him. But that’s not how it works. Scripture says we’re not good people. We can’t know the mind of God. And unconditional love sometimes means unequal treatment. We were the ones who disappointed God, but he loved us anyway.

Their stories aren’t in the Bible because these characters are heroes. Their stories are in the Bible because God is the hero of their stories. Think about it. Who was the hero: Noah or the Supreme Being who saved Noah from the floodwaters? Was Daniel the hero, or was it the Great I Am who saved him from the lions? Was Abraham the hero, or was it Abba Father who made him the father of nations? Just as the faithfulness of the men and women whose stories are told in the Bible points us to Jesus, so can their brokenness. In their brokenness, hurts, and sorrow, we see their humanity. We see their need for a Savior. Though these people appear to be leading actors in their stories, when we look at the larger story, we see they are supporting characters in God’s story. God is on every page of the Bible. He’s in every one of their stories, working in them and through them. The Bible is a book of broken stories and of sinful behaviors that cry out for redemption. That’s why the entire story of the Bible points to a Redeemer. And that Redeemer isn’t Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Peter, Paul, or even Mary. The entire Bible points to Jesus as the Redeemer—our Redeemer.

Can you think of any prayer you’ve prayed where you thought God didn’t answer? Looking back, can you see that perhaps his answer was, “No, I’m not going to take that thing away. I’m going to leave it right where it is”? If that’s happened to you, let’s pause here to make sure you understand what God didn’t say to Paul. He didn’t say, “I’m going to leave it there because you were a terrible person in the past, and you don’t deserve to have it taken away!” God didn’t say, “I wish I could take it away from you, Paul, I really do. It’s just that I’m not strong or powerful enough to take it away.” And God didn’t say, “Stop your whining! The reason I’m not removing your stupid thorn is because I don’t care about it, and I don’t care about you!” Paul wasn’t being punished. Paul was loved. And neither are you being punished. You are also loved. God loves and cares for Paul despite anything he had done in the past or would do in the future. And God certainly has the power to remove this unknown thorn anytime he wants. But God is saying, “For now, I want to leave this thing with you because my power is made perfect in your weakness. And even though it hurts and you’re suffering because of it, my grace is sufficient for you regardless of what it feels like.” Could God be saying something similar to me? And to you? If so, what should our response be? Maybe it should be the same as Paul’s—: Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest ...