Trusting God With A Loved One

I am not sure there is a more difficult type of pain and anxiousness than having a loved one who needs healing. Saving. Growing. Protecting. Changing. Sanctifying. And they have not gotten it yet.

You want something for someone you love, but they go without.

We are often better at trusting God in our own lives than we are in the lives of others. Do we trust God in the lives of our kids, our spouses, our family, and our friends?

If we boil it down, when we lack trust that God will be faithful in the life of our loved ones we are saying that God could not be as powerful in their life as He is in ours. As I have examined my own heart in relation to this, a subtle arrogance lingers. We can be so prideful to think the “other person” needs more of a work of God’s power than we do.

What often appears as trust of God in our own lives is actually just self-reliance.

God’s Heart

Matthew 7:9-11

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

I’ve always considered this verse’s main point to be one that bolsters my faith in God hearing my prayers and not giving me something bad, and it is that. But do you think it is a coincidence that Jesus uses the story of a father and a son?

We are looking into the heart of a father responding to the petitions of a son. Another way we can read this text is that if we are loving to our loved one (that we want good for and want God to be working in) and we are evil (sinful), how much more loving will God be to our loved one?

Suppose our heart burns for their growth. Suppose our desires yearn for their health and safety. If our whole being feels overwhelmed at times with wanting good for our loved one, and we are sinful, how much more does God’s heart burn, yearn, and feel overwhelmed with love for them?

God does not love your loved one less than you, He loves them more than you ever could. And He is all-powerful. And He is always faithful. And He is more wise than you ever could be, seeing everything at once. He knows what they need. You might not always agree with what God is doing in the life of your loved one but rest assured, He is not giving them a stone, but bread.