When They Get What You've Been Praying For

I've celebrated with genuine happiness, tears and excitement countless when achievements, testimonies and prayers were answered for friends, family and even people that I’ve met in passing.

While I am always happy for others when they receive what they have been praying for or even had no idea was coming, there are times that I've also struggled to celebrate.

When I’m in a season of wait, there are days where yet another celebration for someone else feels like an unwanted reminder that I have an unanswered and stagnate prayer.

There are many emotions you may feel while waiting on a prayer to be unanswered. Check out the emotions and God's response to them below:

Imagine if you've been fasting, praying, believing, preparing for something and someone that just began to even entertain the idea receives the very thing you've been putting in work for. While you may genuinely be happy for them, you may also consider the investment that you have put in and wondered why them, why now, why so easy and with such little effort? It's not unreasonable to think this way considering how frustrating it can be for those that have opportunities like education and career advancement handed to them in the form of connections. Michelle Obama spoke candidly of this in her book in recognizing that throughout her education and career, she often was in a room where those that worked to get where they were remained the minority while many benefited from connections and coming from a family of wealth. When you are not relying on connections or family, but turning to God though fasting, preparing, believing and preparing, it can feel frustrating when someone that has not put in as much work receives what you've been working so hard for. It's one thing to realize you don't have the right connections or family background, but another to wonder why God has somehow overlooked your work for the favor of someone else.

God Answers This By Saying:

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit [through factional motives, or strife], but with [an attitude of] humility [being neither arrogant nor self-righteous], regard others as more important than yourselves. (Philippians 2:3 AMP)

What if you have been sacrificial and committed to honoring God, only to see someone that is not yet "spiritually mature", a baby in Christ, or not saved at all receive a blessing that you had to turn from the very behaviors they are still living in. Maybe you had to honor Christ in celibacy before he blessed you with your now spouse while those around you are also happily married yet did not have to follow that same sacrifice. It can be challenging to wonder why you seemed to be "tested", called to higher or had to do more to receive the same as someone else.

God Answers This By Saying:

Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. (Exodus 33:18-19 NIV)

What if in following Christ, you put aside doing things your way or the ways of the world in order to do what is "Christlike". That may mean that you do not take short cuts, scheme, scam, or take the dishonest or sneaky route. You strive to have a testimony that honors God, and following a righteous route. You may find yourself questioning if doing it the "right way" is worth it when you feel left behind as others are succeeding by going the "other route", which may result in waiting on God.

God Answers This By Saying:

Happy are those who reject the advice of evil people, who do not follow the example of sinners or join those who have no use for God. Instead, they find joy in obeying the Law of the Lord, and they study it day and night. They are like trees that grow beside a stream, that bear fruit at the right time, and whose leaves do not dry up. They succeed in everything they do. But evil people are not like this at all; they are like straw that the wind blows away. (Psalm 1:1-4 GNT)

You've been honoring God in living a life that serves him. You disciple, serve and seek to do daily good works in the name of God. What if someone that is a believer, but doesn't put forth as much "work" as you have for the kingdom, is blessed with the things you are praying and trusting God for. You now may find yourself questioning why you were passed over and if God didn't see all of your great work.

God Answers This By Saying:

Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Go out into the world uncorrupted, a breath of fresh air in this squalid and polluted society. Provide people with a glimpse of good living and of the living God. Carry the light-giving Message into the night so I’ll have good cause to be proud of you on the day that Christ returns. You’ll be living proof that I didn’t go to all this work for nothing. (Philippians 2:14-16 MSG)

When everyone around you seems to cross their prayers and desires off their lists, while you still have a full, unchecked list of your own. It can feel as if God is holding back in your blessings, or for some reason you're the lone one out. Celebrating for others may feel harder when you feel you're the only one without a "look what God has done" moment to celebrate of your own.

God Answers This By Saying:

But as it is written:

“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9 NKJV)

When you have a prayer that you so desperately long for that someone else receives, and is not even in your opinion grateful for. Maybe they are not as excited as you would be, or don't even see it as this huge blessing at all. Our experiences and lives can be so different that what seems unlikely to some may seem natural, or no big deal to someone else. I can remember in 4th grade our teacher asking where we would like to go on vacation. Most of the class said somewhere like Disney, but one girl said "Chicago". I grew up in the south suburbs of Chicago, approximately 30 miles outside of the downtown area that she hoped to go to on vacation. Our whole class stared at her, in shock that her dream vacation was just a regular experience for most of us. What we deemed as no big deal, to her meant everything to do. It can be heart wrenching to see someone have something that you desire, and to your standards not cherish the way you would. As a result, you may find yourself feeling as if they do not deserve it, or questioning why them and not you.

God Answers This By Saying:

And he went on to say to them all, “Watch out and guard yourselves from every kind of greed; because your true life is not made up of the things you own, no matter how rich you may be.” (Luke 12:15 AMP)