I recently had an encounter with someone who said that God gave them something that they asked for in prayer, but later discovered that it wasn’t according to His will for them to have it.

Now then, I have an issue with this thought because I don’t believe that God gives us that which is contrary to His will for us; rather, I believe that when we, by manner of our own choosing, end up with something that is contrary to God’s will for us, it is because we have acted outside of His will and took what we wanted without His approval. He simply allows nature to take its course when this happens so that we might learn that it wasn’t best to do what He didn’t want us to do or to take what He doesn’t want us to have.

After all, Scripture makes it very clear that when we ask amiss God does not give:

“Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (James 4:1-3 NKJV)

It’s important to understand that God’s allowance is not God’s gift. In other words, just because God allows us to have what we want that doesn’t mean He gave it to us. Moreover, even if we learn a valuable lesson from it, that still doesn’t mean God gave us something that He didn’t want us to have; it just simply means that God allowed us to have our own way. Of course, He does this to teach us valuable lessons through consequences, and thereby seeks to open our eyes to the fact that it is best not to act in haste and step outside of His will, but to wait on Him and receive all that He desires to give us.

In fact, the Bible has something to say about this:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. (Proverbs 3:5-7 NKJV)

But doesn’t the Bible tell us that God will give us the desires of our hearts? Indeed it does! But there is a context to this thought that should not be left out, and here it is:

Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. (Psalms 37:4-5 NKJV)

You see, God will give you the desires of your heart, but only on the condition that you delight yourself in Him. That is, you must have a desire to receive what He wants for you in order for Him to give you the desires of your heart, which means you must walk in obedience to His commandments. What this simply means is that delighting yourself in the LORD isn’t as much about outward appearances as it is about what’s inside of your heart. I say this because not all is as it appears to be.  There are many who appear to be serving God, but they are actually serving themselves instead.  Jesus emphasized this point quite clearly when He said,

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ (Matthew 7:21-23 NKJV)

The bottom line here is this:  a heart that delights in God will take what God gives and give what He takes. To put it more plainly, a person who delights in the LORD will seek first His kingdom and His righteousness in all matters of life. Hence, he can know that His prayers will be answered because he asks according to the will of God. For, “this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.” (1 John 5:14-15 NKJV)

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