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

by Laura Story

We’re all just one phone call away from learning the results of a test or the news of an affair, the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, or a thousand other ways our hope can be shattered.

“If you tell Martin you love him and that you want to spend the rest of your life with him, you have to be prepared to see it through even if the fluffy feelings disappear, because marriage isn’t just about fluffy feelings.”

We’re going to press on through this, but God, you’ve got to help me. Something has to change!

our first ministry was not to our churches but to our families.

God, where are you in all of this? Couldn’t

Am I going to let my circumstances determine my view of God, or am I going to let God determine how I view my circumstances?

was God’s child, and he wanted me to stop running so he could love me.

God had taken me out of my self-centered life and dropped me in the middle of nowhere so I could get alone with him.

Our desire is for God to fix broken things. But God’s desire for us is to fix our relationship with him.

while we’re focused on the unhealed sickness, hurt, and pain in our lives, God is focused on a bigger picture. Something else is broken, and it has eternal consequences if it doesn’t get fixed. It’s our relationship with our Creator.

our broken relationship with God continues to cause us pain even when our life is going well. God wants to restore our relationship with him more than anything else. Though he loves us, he’ll allow us to feel the pain of this world’s unhealed hurts if it brings us closer to him.

Jesus came to heal, but he doesn’t always fix the broken things I want fixed. But if I allow him to, God will always heal my broken relationship with him.

Looking around, you see others have gotten what you wanted, and you don’t understand why you can’t get it too.

it still feels as though God has turned his back on you.

A God who leaves physically sick people to preach the good news to spiritually sick people is a God who cares more about our soul than our body. That is who our God is.

We learn who he really is during the most desperate part of our trials. It’s about meeting God where and when we need him most.

our faith isn’t perfected until it’s been tested in a spiritual challenge.

when the trials of life happen, we need to hold on to God.

Even during your darkest trials God is waiting with outstretched arms for you to come into his presence.

In my doubt and distrust of God, I had failed to see the good things he had done for me.

If I had lived out my perfect plan, the one I thought was better than God’s, there are things about his Word and character I never would have experienced.

Fortunately, God is faithful to us even when we are disobedient to him.

God’s intentions are so much grander than ours, we can’t even fathom what he has planned for us.

When the gospel takes hold of you, you can’t help but respond by giving yourself away.

Strong faith doesn’t come from how hard I work. It’s not what I do.

In those seasons of life when I’ve been distracted, God has held me that much tighter.

God’s Word was a love letter to me, filled with his promises. In his Word, his light and truth led me into his presence,

“The whole world could be against your husband, but as long as you are for him, you give him wings.

To really love Martin, I had to let him make mistakes and learn from them.

If I called you to stay how you are right now, will you be content, or will there always be something else you want?

had to let go of our dreams and let them die, I knew we were where God wanted us.

accepted God’s plan for us and chose to move forward.

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.

Worship is surrendering everything for God, valuing God so much that we’re willing to let everything else go.

worshipping the Giver was greater than worshipping the gift he’d been given. His most faith-filled moment involved letting something go.

We don’t gain God’s blessings by hanging on. We gain them by letting go. And when we gain them, that’s when we can use them to bless others.

In those dark moments when I am obsessed with finding out why, I’m sure that if I just had an answer to my question, I’d feel better. Even on those occasions when I do get an answer, it rarely leads to satisfaction and always leads to more questions.

Sometimes David got answers. Sometimes he got silence. But even when David’s questions weren’t answered, his faith in God was stronger than his need to know.

God doesn’t promise our stories will make sense in and of themselves. But he does promise they will find their greater purpose in light of his greater story of redemption.

knowing that God’s glory can be displayed, even in the brokenness of our lives, gives us hope despite our circumstances.

If I were stuck asking why this happened to her, I’d never see how God was working through her.

You have to believe his promises in the midst of your hard situation because not only is that the only thing that will bring you hope, it’s the only thing that will save your life.

Now two selfish and sinful people are living together in a home—and disappointment can set in.

Our choices were to give up or keep moving. We chose to keep moving.

But now, Lord, I believe that you can sustain me through any trial.

if I hadn’t gone through all of this, my relationship with God wouldn’t be where it is today.

He didn’t promise that we wouldn’t have trials. He promised that he’d be there when we did and that he’d never leave our side.

Maybe you heard our prayers, but you didn’t give us the things we asked for because they were lesser things.

God can redeem not only every life, but every season of our life,

God wants to use your story for the salvation of the nations.