God Always Knows Best - The Crosswalk Devotional - May 28
God Always Knows Best
By Cindi McMenamin
Bible Reading:
“If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11)
How many times do you and I have something on our minds, or on our wish lists, that we fail to ask God for, and we just rush ahead and try to get it for ourselves?
I remember when my daughter and I got in our heads that we wanted to replace our carpet downstairs with wood laminate flooring. We believed it would be better for my husband, who suffered allergies now and then from our beloved cat, Mowgli. And we so wanted the upgrade to get rid of our old, smelly carpet.
We also wanted to update the overall look of our condo, so we went to a home improvement store and admired granite and marble countertops that could replace the old tile and grungy grout in our kitchen. The cost of the countertops was so high, though, that we figured we didn’t truly need them. So, my daughter and I decided to just push hard for the new flooring.
Yet, my husband insisted that we wait. “We don’t know if we might end up paying taxes this year,” he said, “so let’s wait until after April.”
“But we have the money in savings,” I countered. “And you’d love it, Dad,” my daughter chimed in.
Yet my husband was insistent. "I'm just not feeling at peace about it,” he said. “Please wait and trust me on this.”
I was so convinced we should have that flooring, I whined about it to God in prayer the next morning. It was very clear what God was saying to my heart during my prayer time: Listen to your husband. Follow his lead.
I didn’t bother arguing with God. He usually won’t budge on things. So, I waited it out and forgot about the flooring. Until a few months later, when we discovered wet carpet from a slab leak underneath our kitchen floor and entryway! The insurance company was called. Dryers were put in our living room to dry out the floors and help mitigate what they hoped wouldn’t turn into mold. Then, contractors came and rerouted our water lines from the ground into the walls of our condo. The place was an absolute mess. But part of the remodel included not only replacing the carpet in the living room and entry way and up the stairs, but the option to include flooring instead at less of a cost than the carpet, leaving excess funds to replace our countertops, which had to be redone after a tile broke when the contractors were repairing the lower cupboards underneath the countertops.
Over the next few months, we ended up with all-new wood flooring downstairs, beautiful new granite countertops, and a kitchen repaint at practically no expense to us.
Had I rushed ahead and not waited on my husband and God for that wood flooring, we would’ve paid a few thousand dollars for it, only to have it all ripped up a month later and reinstalled again after the leak. By waiting when my husband said, “Let’s wait,” and by listening to God when He said, “Listen to your husband,” we didn’t pay anything except a small deductible for what turned out to be a $15,000 remodel of the downstairs in our home.
Intersecting Faith & Life:
How many times might God have something far better for us than what was on our own wish list and timeline? Trust Him for what He wants to do in your life in His way and in His time. Trust Him in the messes, like slab leaks, reconstruction, and water damage repair. He has a way of restoring and bringing beauty out of the chaos. And as Matthew 7:11 says, He loves to give gifts to His children who not only ask Him, but wait upon Him.
Thank You, Lord, that You can accomplish far more when I pray about a situation and wait upon You than I can when I argue or try to work things out for myself. Lord, You always know best, and I truly want Your best, not my idea of what’s best. Teach me to wait upon Your plan and Your timing. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.
Further Reading:
Psalm 84:11
For daily help and inspiration to wait upon God, see Cindi McMenamin’s book, The New Loneliness Devotional: 50 Days to a Closer Connection with God.
How did today’s devotional speak to you? Share your thoughts in the Crosswalk Devotional discussion.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Arkira
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