Why won't God help me right NOW?

Ever found yourself frustrated with the seemingly endless wait for divine intervention? You're not alone. Join me as I grapple with the impatience and disappointment that often accompany our desire for immediate answers to our prayers, especially in times of personal crisis like health issues, financial troubles, or relationship woes. We'll question the familiar church responses that lean heavily on scripture about God's timing and plans, and explore how these can sometimes feel more dismissive than comforting. Through my personal experiences, I hope to open up a space where you can acknowledge and express these complex emotions without guilt, and consider ways to share and understand them within your faith community.

In our candid discussion, we confront the struggle of feeling disconnected from God during prolonged hardships, despite assurances that everything will eventually work out. I share my discomfort with the Christian community's tendency to offer scripture when empathy is needed, and the challenge of trusting in future resolutions when the present feels unbearable. Together, we'll explore alternative forms of support, such as journaling or finding groups that truly understand your journey, offering solace when spiritual and emotional needs aren't fully acknowledged. Let's walk this path together, seeking immediate answers and reassurance, while reminding ourselves that we are not alone in these feelings.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

right now? How about now? I don't know about you, but when I ask God for help, I'm really hoping he's going to come through right now, like without delay. Man, like if I'm sick, if I feel well and I pray, I'm hoping you're going to step in right now. If I have a money problem or something's going on at work, I'm praying you're going to step in to turn that around right now. Indeed, when I'm praying for others and whatever their needs are, I'm praying that's going to be happening now, or at least sooner than later. Do you feel like that? Can you relate to the idea of wanting what you want now? I think a lot of people can, but I don't think in the that is really encouraged. Let's say it this way In the church, we're frequently told upon needing something that God is going to provide, but that provision is going to come on His timeline.

Speaker 1 1:23

It's going to come in His way, in the form that he wants it, with the people and the timing and the context. And basically, for one thing, you're thinking I don't want all that other stuff, right, like I just want God to help me with this thing. Heal my leg that's broke, help me find a higher paying job, let me get that promotion. Heal that relationship, heal my marriage. As human beings we often fret or worry about the future. So our mind is out there, out running ahead, and then also we tend to reminisce about the past or perhaps reflect on things that bring us down in the past or make us sad about the past or make us feel like we missed something from the past. So then our mind is dwelling there, but, as we're frequently told, and as something that, like in Eastern philosophy, there seems to be a much more explicit understanding of that, we live essentially in an infinite now. We only live right now. Everything else is either in our memory, in our imagination, but that's it. We are right here. Imagination, but that's it. We are right here. And so, as people that live here and now and in our moment, that's where we feel the need right, that's where we feel the wants, that's where we feel the desires. We feel them right now. And so naturally, when we're feeling that and we're asking for help, we're hoping that's delivered right now, or hopefully, there's like a real good reason for it, or we know that it's going to be delivered soon or we have. If I can just wait this next week, then God's going to do that, or God never gives us a prognosis for his response to what we're asking for. So we just we really don't know if he's going to answer it. Is it his will to answer it? When will he answer it? With what circumstances or through whom? We wish that we would get this care package from God, or even just an email back that just says hey, man, yeah, I got your prayer working on it. We'll be in touch. Like anything a read receive.

Speaker 1 3:47

In our lives as human beings, we feel much more comfortable having some feedback when it comes to having our needs met right. Most of us would not be comfortable, say, not knowing where our next meal came from, or if we're going to be able to get some gainful employment, or how long we're going to be stuck in a certain circumstance that we find just too uncomfortable to remain in for like more than is the time that's absolutely necessary. So I could tell you right now if you feel like you're asking things of God and you're frustrated by not getting that response in the now you're not alone. Man Like I could totally relate to that. I think many people can relate to that. I think most people can relate to that.

Speaker 1 4:40

The problem isn't that people don't feel that way. The problem is, generally, as Christians, we don't let people express that without kind of beating them back with all the right things to say. So you say something and what do people say? They just start trotting out all the verses Not in my time, it's in God's time, and God's time isn't our time. And what else have we got? I hear them so often now I can't remember them. God has a plan for you to bless you, or how about God is going to multiply and restore everything that was lost from the harvest. So we have all these sayings and promises and things that are thrown at us when we need help. And it's unfortunate, right, because we want to be able to say just honestly yeah, dude, I need help and I wish God would help me.

Speaker 1 5:46

Like right now for a lot of people in the company of many Christians, you just can't get away with that. People look at you like you're trying to override God, or you think better than God, or you're just in your own earthly wisdom and basically, so what do you do? So for me, if I'm in a situation and I'm trying to express that and I'm with somebody who is not going to honor or respect what I'm saying and they're just going to pare it back to me all these verses. There's only I guess there are three options, but I'm certainly not going to be arguing about it. That's just a waste of time. There's really only two responses I can either not bring it up to them and just to totally avoid that conversation, or I can just swallow it down and not really feel comfortable with the message I'm being given or what I'm supposed to be able to hold on to peacefully, but I just swallow down anyway.

Speaker 1 6:50

Okay, so you wind up like berating yourself, or you could just become very frustrated and angry, like at the person who's pushing that down your throat, and or you could just be mad at God about it. Can you relate to that? Have you ever been mad at God? Have you ever been mad at God because he didn't deliver something for you, or he didn't deliver something for your loved one, or he didn't deliver something at your church or at your workplace? Have you ever been disappointed about that? Have you ever been mad about that? Because I can tell you you're not alone. I am like the poster boy for disappointment and frustration with God. Okay, and I know I'm not alone. I know I'm not alone, but in my daily life I often have to walk alone on that, because most people and indeed most people they're Christians or they're aspiring to be Christians, or however they would describe themselves, and they may be confronting all these same problems. But when someone brings it up to them, they're being told hey, this is what you're supposed to say, right? What's the script that we're taught to respond to people with when they're disappointed or they're in a hurry, or they feel like things have gotten behind? Let me tell you, I am totally behind on tons of shit, right? I'm behind in my career. I'm behind in my health. I'm behind in my relationships. I'm behind.

Speaker 1 8:40

There are so many things that have happened over the years to delay and redirect my path. Now, granted, it is mine, right, like I'm trying to determine that. So somebody could say, yeah, your plan, jimmy, isn't working, but that's because God has a totally different plan, so things aren't actually late. Or people say God's never late, god's always right on time. Okay, I guess you can choose to look at it that way. Being right on time for me means like right now. Way, being right on time for me means like right now. You know what I'm saying. God, you want to be on time. If you're asking me, god, like what I want or need or whatever, like I'm saying, I need you to come through now. The now is what I'm interested in and indeed in the Bible, the word now is used quite a bit, so it's not as if there's no value in the now, maybe taken as a whole.

Speaker 1 9:45

Looking at the Bible, like you can see that there are a few things going on at the same time. Right, because sometimes it seems like people are being encouraged or exhorted to do something or claim something like right now, to take action right now. But that's not all the cases. Some cases are forget the past, but the past behind you. To shake the dust off your feet and move on to the next village. To shake the dust off your feet and move on to the next village. Then the third category, which is here's what you need to be looking forward to. Here's what I am going to do to give you the victory. When or how? I'm not going to answer that, this would be God saying this, but I am going to come through and you can count on my promises to you.

Speaker 1 10:41

This situation for normal people who don't have to pretend to be super Christians or super pastors or the risen son of God themselves, just to the normal everyday person like us. Now is a word that becomes very problematic when we talk about our faith, because a lot of things that we don't like happening are happening right now. I'm having trouble with this. Right now, my stomach hurts, like right now my loved one is dealing with this situation in their household. Right now, someone in my church group has a kid who just got arrested last night. This is stuff that's happening like right now. How can we? This is stuff that's happening like right now. How can we? Why should we even entertain the idea of, yeah, that's yeah, don't worry, because in the future that's going to be resolved, or yeah, god has it in hand, or whatever?

Speaker 1 11:50

I wish I had that type of faith, but a lot of the times that's really not where I'm at. It depends, right, it depends what's going on. It depends how serious it is. It depends what experiences I've had with God in that category. If there's a category of your life where you feel like God has really gotten your back and you have a sense of security in it, for those things it's going to be much easier for you to be like, oh well, hey, I'm good, I can wait this out, I know God's going to lift me out of this circumstance, I know it's going to turn out better than I thought, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 12:27

But if it's in an area of your life where it's been a really rough, long road rough, long road and you haven't felt like God has been present with you and speaking to your needs in the moment on this long path A lot of us are on these long again. It's not something that's always talked about in church, right, because everything in church is let's tell you about how God's going to resolve this. It's like a sales approach, right, come here, we're going to tell you how God's going to solve this. After you've lived for a while, you start to realize like God doesn't solve everything and he certainly doesn't just answer everybody's prayers and there's no one there's no one among us who can say I can pray for whatever and it's going to come to pass. Or I can pray or speak something that's going to happen right now, going to happen right now. Or I can tell the future about how God's going to straighten this out or work this out or puzzle this together or cobble some solution together in the future. I don't have any of that. So the thing is that and for so many of us, we want more answers in the now.

Speaker 1 13:54

But it can be hard to get that out of the Christian community, because people want to tell you about these other verses. They want to sometimes just criticize you for not resting in those verses. Hey, man, the verses God's going to come through. You don't even have to worry about that. Okay, really, I don't have to worry about it, because I didn't worry about this shit the past 17 years and I still have this problem, like for me, I've had some health problems, some of them stretch back decades. So what are you going to say to me? Are you saying you know, yeah, god, if it's right around the corner, god's going to heal you? Or don't worry, god's going to make all this up to you. Or don't worry anyway, because, man, in the end you're going to die and you'll be in heaven and you won't care and everything will be good Like?

Speaker 1 14:47

None of those answers feels good to me right now. Please do not tell me that shit, or at least don't tell that to me all the time when I'm venting or I'm expressing some desperation or frustration or whatever. Don't just be hitting me up with that man. When you do that too much, it really comes off as cruel like in my mind because you're not acknowledging that person's need, you're acting like that need is kind of an aside and don't worry about it. Quit whining, quit complaining. Look how you're blessed, be thankful, and that's the thing is that there's room for all of these ideas and sentiments, right.

Speaker 1 15:33

There is a time when we feel grateful, there is a time when we feel rushed. There's all these different times and one thing that I would say and you tell me in the comments is this what you, what do you say? You say when you need something now and you go to God with that and it doesn't seem like anything's happening, what do you do? I'm going to ask you what do you do? I could use some advice. Do you just talk to somebody different? Do you just keep it to yourself? Do you journal it? Is there certain groups or something you belong to where you feel like people are more willing to hear that truth from you of what you're going through, without criticizing you as if it's something wrong with you that you're having some trouble just taking all this anxiety or fear or sadness or pain or whatever and just pushing it off to some future date. What do you do with it? Tell me, gilfrefaithcom.