Many of you have been waiting for a long time for something, anything to happen to change your circumstances. Your life has been very difficult on a number of frontiers. I can relate! The other night I reached the point that you may be familiar with; it is known as Meltdown. I sincerely begged and pleaded with God to move and change the situation. I needed some hope. The very next day God answered my prayer.
Your counselee's need hope too. They need to hear that God answers prayer, and they need to know that He is faithful. Our experiences are important on the human plane, and while they never supercede the Word of God, the movement of God in the lives of His people is a tremendous encouragement to each of us who in the midst of the storm.
What about when God moves in an unexpected way? That is what He has done in our case, and it takes us all down a whole different path than the one we hoped for. Does this mean God made a mistake? By no means!
‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11 (NASB)
Like us, our counselee's need to hear and want to hear that God knows what He is doing, even when it all looks muddy. They (and we) need to be encouraged to have a heart of faith that is focused on trusting Him for the results of a given situation, even though it may look hopeless. We need to remind them of Who God is especially when He answers prayer in a most unexpected way!
Jerry Bridges says this in Trusting God:
"If there is a single event in all of the universe that can occur outside of God’s sovereign control, then we cannot trust Him. His love may be infinite, but if His power is limited and His purpose can be thwarted, we cannot trust Him."
Faith and trust go hand in hand. When it comes down to it, we either believe God is sovereign or we don't. We believe He is in control of the uncontrollable or we don't. We believe He is all powerful, or we don't.
God does not move according to our time table and He is only accountable to Himself for His actions. He does not owe us and is not beholden to us. When God moves in most unexpected ways it is important that we remember we are the servants of the Most High God, not the other way around.