This past week, author, podcaster and Live Original founder, Sadie Robertson, shared a clip of a talk she gave titled, “Don’t Waste the Waiting.”
In the video, she encouraged her 3 million Instagram followers to not put God in a box. She explained that it is easy to turn Him into a genie-like figure, wanting Him to grant each of our wishes or requests instantaneously.
Robertson compared the way people often treat God with the way that children treat Santa. She recalled that around Christmas time, children place limits on Santa, like: “If he doesn’t give me what I want, then I don’t believe he is real.”
She pointed out that sometimes we treat God like this, questioning His existence if He doesn’t give us what we want.
“I told God I wanted that, and if He doesn’t do it for me right now then I’m not going to believe in Him,” she said.
Robertson pointed out that the Bible is filled with God’s promises to His people, but none of these promises include things like giving you your dream job.
“This is going to be hard to hear. But the job that you want, the school that you want, they were never a promise of God,” she said.
It’s not to say that God won’t answer your prayer requests with a “yes,” but it’s also not to say that it won’t be a “not now,” or a “not ever.”
“Don’t forget about what you already have,” she said, encouraging the audience to reflect on the blessings God has already given them.
God’s plans are better than our plans
God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present. That means that He has a bird’s-eye view on the world around us. We also know that He operates outside of time (Psalm 90:4, 2 Peter 3:8), and because of this, we know that His plans are far better than our plans.
If we question God’s existence simply because He did not give us something we wanted, or prayed for, then we are doubting his omniscience. As Robertson noted in her video, God has promised us many things, but getting us into our favorite college, or the job we are after, is not in those promises.
Though this may feel disappointing at first, Christians can take comfort in the fact that ultimately, God knows best and has our best interests in mind.
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD” (Isaiah 55:8).