Thanking God for the Answers Yet to Come

This year on Thanksgiving, I listened to everyone share what they were grateful for and then took my own inventory of the blessings in life. There is so much to be grateful for!! But all day I kept being pulled back into the memory of last Thanksgiving in Peru, riding a horse up to Rainbow Mountain. As we trekked the 17,000+ footer, I prayed a prayer that burned its memory into my head. It was a prayer full of clarity of feelings shared with God, moments of gratitude, and fervent requests for wisdom, understanding, guidance, and more. I asked God a lot of questions regarding my life, my future, His will for me, and understanding His voice. I wondered if I’d heard Him right along the way and I asked Him to show me His plan.

As I reflected on last year’s Thanksgiving, I realized that I still have many of the same prayers today that I did a year ago. I have waited and listened to God’s voice this year and still have yet to see where He is taking me. And so, oddly, this Thanksgiving I felt the most thankful for the answers to prayers that are still yet to come. I felt thankful for the ways that I know that God is going to come through on His promises, the ways that He will continue to show me His nature, the ways He will grant me wisdom and guidance as I continue to walk down the paths that He has planned out for me. I am grateful that He chooses to speak to us, to reveal His plans along the way, and that He refines us in the process of answering His promises to us. As I chose to be thankful for the unknown answers to my unanswered prayers, I spent time reading and was amazed at the relevancy of the passages that God put in front of me.

I first read Romans 12:2, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

I often wonder if I am hearing God right. God does have a will, and it is perfect. And His will is accessible to us. Romans 12 reminded me that it is possible to discern God’s will (at least at the most micro level) when we allow Him to transform our mind. His Spirit will tell us what it means to be kind, to be bold, to be thoughtful. He will show us when to hold our tongue, to speak up, to go, to stay, etc. Transform. Renew. Don’t conform.

Next, Isaiah 48:3,5 “I [God], foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass… I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about…’”

Obviously, Isaiah is talking about things much grander than my ordinary life. However, I think the heart of it is relevant to us all. God can choose to reveal things to us at times SO THAT His working hand can be clearly seen. “For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another.” (Isaiah 48:11). God seems to love making the impossible possible in ways that only He can, putting His character on full display for us all.

And lastly, I read about Simeon in Luke 2. “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts…” and then Simeon saw Jesus. Simeon heard from God and God came through on His promise to Simeon. As a righteous and devout man, Simeon could clearly see how God was moving when everyone around him seemed to miss it. Simeon is Romans 12 and Isaiah 48 in human form. God, via the Holy Spirit, revealed a small piece of His plan to Simeon ahead of time. And Simeon, through the transformation of his mind and refusal to fall into groupthink, confidently believed. Simeon laid his eyes on a baby and knew that God was saving the world. Simeon’s faith and God’s revelation to Him glorified His name.

These three passages of Scripture don’t so naturally connect… but they seemed to round out my Thanksgiving thought clearly. I have wrestled with discerning the voice and will of God. I have wondered if it is possible. And I see that it is in many ways. I naturally do a lot more talking to God than listening, but the more I have fought to listen, the more I have heard Him. The more I hear Him tell me things like “wait”, “Ryan, you’re my daughter”, “you’re not ready”, “you should consider ____”. I think God has a lot He wants to say to us. And I think He teaches us a lot in the waiting. But as He slowly answers my prayers (in ways I like and sometimes in ways I don’t), I know that His name will be glorified. And so this year, I thank God for the answers that are yet to come.