What If God Doesn’t Fix It?
Photo by Kamil Pietrzak on Unsplash
I spend a lot of time asking God to fix things. Maybe you do too.
When someone I love is sick, I want God to heal them. When a relationship is strained, I want God to repair it. When I’m stressed about something at work or worried about the future, my prayers can pretty quickly become some version of:
“God, please just fix this.”
And to be clear, I don’t think there is anything wrong with that prayer.
Jesus tells us to bring our needs to God. We should pray for healing. We should pray for broken relationships to be restored. We should ask God to intervene when life hurts.
But there is a scene in Acts 4 that has been challenging me lately because the earliest Christians prayed a little differently.
They didn’t just ask God to remove the problem. They asked God to give them the strength to faithfully follow him in the middle of it. And I wonder if sometimes that is the prayer I am missing.
A Man Who Had Never Walked
The story begins in Acts 3.
Peter and John are heading to the temple when they encounter a man who has been unable to walk since birth. He is over forty years old and has apparently spent much of his life sitting outside the temple asking people for money.
When he sees Peter and John, he does what he has probably done thousands of times before. He asks for help. He is hoping for a little money. Instead, Peter tells him:
“In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.”
And the man stands up. For the first time in his life, his legs work. I love what happens next.
The first thing he does with his new legs is not run home. He doesn’t go find all his friends. He doesn’t start making plans for everything he can finally do. He goes into the temple. Acts says he was “walking and leaping and praising God.”
There is something beautiful about that.
But Luke wants us to see more than an incredible healing story. This man’s entire life has changed. He no longer has to sit outside the temple begging. He can participate in the community in a way he never could before. Everyone who has walked past him for years now sees him standing in front of them.
And Peter wants to make sure everyone understands why.
Jesus did this.
The same Jesus many of them had rejected was alive, powerful, and still at work.
Christianity Is More Than Not Sinning
The healing draws a crowd, and Peter starts preaching. At one point he tells them:
“Repent therefore, and turn back.”
We use the word repent a lot in Christianity, and I think sometimes we hear it primarily as, “Stop doing bad things.”
Stop lying.
Stop gossiping.
Stop looking at things you shouldn’t look at.
Stop losing your temper.
Stop whatever sin you keep struggling with.
And yes, repentance absolutely involves turning away from sin.
But notice that Peter doesn’t only tell them what to turn from.
He tells them to turn back.
Toward God.
I think that distinction matters. Because if we aren’t careful, Christianity can become a giant list of things we are trying not to do. And following Jesus is so much bigger than that. The goal isn’t simply to become really good at avoiding sin. The goal is to become the kind of person who is moving closer and closer to God.
So maybe a better question than, “What do I need to stop doing?” is:
“What can I do this week to move toward God?”
Maybe you need to start your day with Scripture before you start scrolling.
Maybe you need to pray about something you’ve been trying to control yourself.
Maybe you need to forgive somebody.
Maybe you need to serve.
Maybe you need to join a church community instead of continuing to follow Jesus by yourself.
Whatever it is, don’t just run from sin.
Run toward God.
Sometimes You Have to Jump Out of the Plane
Peter’s preaching causes a problem. The religious leaders arrest Peter and John and tell them to stop talking about Jesus. And these are not empty threats. Some of the same powerful people who were involved in the events leading to Jesus’ crucifixion are now questioning Peter and John.
This suddenly got serious.
But instead of backing down, Peter speaks boldly. Acts tells us that Peter was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” Jesus had actually promised this would happen. He told his followers that when they found themselves in difficult situations because of their faith, the Holy Spirit would give them what they needed.
I think Christians sometimes wonder why we don’t experience more of the power of the Holy Spirit. Maybe part of the answer is that we aren’t doing anything that requires his power.
Imagine sitting inside an airplane wearing a parachute. You’ve got it strapped on correctly. You’ve been told it works. You believe everybody who tells you it works. But then you complain:
“I don’t really feel like this parachute is doing much for me.”
Well...of course not. You’re still sitting in the plane. The parachute becomes pretty important once you jump.
In the same way, sometimes we want God to give us courage before we have done anything courageous.
We want to feel equipped before we serve.
We want to feel confident before we speak.
We want to feel strong before we obey.
But often in Scripture, people discover the power of God while they are obeying him.
You forgive even though it is hard.
You serve even though it is inconvenient.
You have the conversation even though it makes you nervous.
You say yes when God asks you to do something that feels bigger than you.
And somewhere in the middle of your obedience, you discover:
God gave me what I needed.
Their First Response Was Prayer
Eventually Peter and John are released. And this may be my favorite part of the story. After spending the night in jail and being threatened by some of the most powerful people in Jerusalem, they go back to the other Christians.
And they pray.
No scheming.
No hiding.
No revenge.
They pray.
But what really gets me is what they pray for.
They don’t primarily ask God to make the opposition disappear. They ask God to give them boldness to keep doing what he has called them to do. That is very different from the way I often pray.
My instinct is:
“God, take away the problem.”
Their instinct was:
“God, give us what we need to be faithful in the problem.”
That doesn’t mean we should stop asking God to change our circumstances.
If you have cancer, pray for healing.
If your marriage is struggling, pray for restoration.
If your job is miserable, ask God to change the situation.
If your child is struggling, ask God to intervene.
Please pray those prayers.
But maybe we should add one more:
“God, while I am here, show me how to follow you.”
If the circumstances don’t change tomorrow, what would faithfulness look like tomorrow?
Who can you love?
What do you need to learn?
Where do you need courage?
What would obedience look like?
How might God work through you even in a situation you desperately wish he would remove?
A Different Kind of Prayer
I don’t know what hard thing you are dealing with right now. But I would guess there is something. Something you wish God would fix. Something you wish he would change. Something you wish would just go away. Ask him.
But don’t stop there.
If you are fighting the same sin again and again, don’t only pray, “God, help me stop.”
Pray, “God, show me how to move toward you.”
If you are afraid to do something you believe God is asking you to do, don’t only pray, “God, make this easier.”
Pray, “Holy Spirit, give me the courage to obey.”
And if you are going through something painful, don’t only pray, “God, please take this away.”
Pray, “God, if I have to walk through this, show me how to walk through it with you.”
I am trying to pray that way more often. I still want God to fix the problem. But I also want to become the kind of person who can say:
“God, whether you change this situation today or not, help me faithfully follow you in it.”
Because sometimes God changes the circumstances. And sometimes, while we are waiting for the circumstances to change, God changes us.