Yes No Grow?

When You pray, assuming you do pray, do pray with expectation? I do. But what does that expectation look like? What kind of answer do you expect? And furthermore, what if that answer never comes to fruition? What then? But what if you get the answer you want, how different is your response? Does it drive you to pray more than you would if your prayer wasn’t answered? Or does unanswered prayer cause you to dig deeper?

Another category of response to prayer is prayer that is answered, but not answered as you’d hoped it would be. This isn’t unanswered prayer. It is answered prayer. It’s just not the response you wanted. What do you do with that? Does it make you pray more? Pray Less? Give up?

This week I heard a comment from Dave Ramsey on answers to prayers. He said that prayer can be answered as ‘yes’ ‘no’ or ‘grow’. It made a huge impact on me.

I’ve always felt it was awesome to get a ‘yes’ answer to prayer. I felt confirmed. I felt God was listening. Maybe even a little self-absorbed ‘cause I got my own way. On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, ‘no’ answers were very disengaging. How could God possibly not want this to happen! I prayed and prayed for it….what’s up with the ‘no’ answer.

I have recently witnessed both sides of this prayer ‘coin.’ A close relative of ours was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. As a family, we have all been prayer warriors, seeking the optimum results of this wicked disease. A few weeks ago the onslaught of chemo therapy treatments began. Going into it, we knew there was a distinct possibility of extreme nausea that can follow a treatment. I saw this with my own father who endured this several years ago. But, there are also those who have minimal discomfort throughout the entire chemo process. We prayed and prayed for the resulting illness not to happen, but much to our dismay horrible nausea came about 30 minutes after the treatment and it lasted for days. Never the less we continued to pray that they would be spared from severe nausea after the next treatment. Treatment #2 came and went. Although the sickness still came, it’s my understanding that it was far less severe. Prayer was answered. We continue to pray for deliverance from the nausea every day.

Another side affect of this treatment is hair loss. Knowing this was a very real possibility a ‘SPARE THE HAIR” mantra was created and included in each prayer we prayed for them. Despite our pleas, the hair loss became inevitable. Prayer wasn’t answered. At least at our level of expectation.

But in reality it was. I received an email early this week from our family member who’d been stricken with the disease. It read

….doing better today, going back for more fluids and talking to the , still believing my God will turn it around. Alas, he is not sparing my hair, had a break down early this morning, but you put your one foot in front of the other and go on believing still.

And later in the week

…..will probably be shearing me this evening, to keep hair out of drains.

I had emailed back with this response after seeing Dave Ramsey’s video…

At one point in the video Dave was talking about answer to prayer. He said answer to prayer is usually “yes” “no” or “grow!” I thought that was an awesome outlook. Of course I thought of you immediately as I’m sure you’ve had many yes, no, and grow moments in the past few weeks. I know I have. But whatever your answer has been you have continued to trust and forge ahead. I know this is because You love our God and You are confident He loves You and is taking care of your needs.

So even though they weren’t spared from hair loss, something much more valuable was maintained, a sense of trust in God, a positive outlook and a sense of humor. It wasn’t what was specifically being asked for but what God wanted. Prayer was answered. It wasn’t with a ‘yes.’ It wasn’t with a ‘no.’ It was with a ‘grow.’

We really have to be conscious of the opportunity for answered prayer ‘grow’ moments or they can pass us by. It’s easy to write off a ‘grow’ moment as a ‘no’ response that can take our response to the prayer in a totally different direction. Not only take us in a different direction, but also may make us miss a blessing that could have made a huge impact on our lives.

In Jeremiah 45, God tells Baruch that bad times are ahead. But he also tells him that he is going to keep him alive. It’s our choice. We can dwell on the negative….’oh things are so horrible, whatever will we do’or we can find the nugget of goodness that God wants to give us….’I’m keeping you alive!”

Jeremiah 45 1 This is what Jeremiah told Baruch one day in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign as he was taking dictation from the prophet: 2-3"These are the words of God, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch. You say, 'These are bad times for me! It's one thing after another. God is piling on the pain. I'm worn out and there's no end in sight.' 4-5"But God says, 'Look around. What I've built I'm about to wreck, and what I've planted I'm about to rip up. And I'm doing it everywhere—all over the whole earth! So forget about making any big plans for yourself. Things are going to get worse before they get better. But don't worry. I'll keep you alive through the whole business.'"

This morning when I was at the gym a song entitled “Gotta get through this “ by Daniel Bedingfield came on my IPOD. Whatever we’re facing, lean in on God. He may not always answer the way you want him to, but find the nugget of truth in his response. Interestingly, the chorus begins with in self-dependance....but by the end the dependance is shifted.....

If only I could get through this
I get through this

I gotta get through this
I gotta get through this
I gotta make it, gonna make, gonna make it through
I'm gotta get through this
I gotta get through this....

Give me just a second and I'll be all right
Surely one more moment couldn't break my heart
Give me 'til tomorrow then I'll be okay...

If only I could get through this
If only I could get through this
If only I could get through this God, God gotta help me get through this

If only I could get through this
God, God gotta help me get through this
If only I could get through this
God, God gotta help me get through this
If only I could get through this...

Yes, No GROW !