Nevertheless...

Nevertheless – I think this is a word that we don’t use often enough when talking to God. Nevertheless – it means, in spite of. When we pray we say, “God, give me A, B and C and help Mr. D and Mrs. E and give me strength and wisdom, etc, etc.” The word we, or at least I, seldom use is nevertheless – in spite of. “In spite of what I’ve asked, God, your will be done, not mine.” That’s kind of a scary thought. What if we never get what we want again? What if God’s ‘will’ is for us to serve in Zimbabwe, Timbuktu or even worse, the church nursery? Shouldn’t we put some ‘qualifiers’ on a statement that begins with the word nevertheless?
We think God doesn’t want to give us what we want. We think what God wants to give us will not, in any way, resemble anything close to what we want. Far too often we have a skewed view of how God does things – of what He thinks is important. First of all, whenever we approach God with a request, He is interested. If you’re a parent you know your children have and will approach you with many requests. Many of them, especially in the early years, will be totally irrelevant to anything important going on the world around us. You know the questions – questions like, “Can I have the latest Power Rangers action figure?” “Why can’t I sit in the front seat?” “Can I stay up all night?” or “Why do I always have to take a bath?” They may not be questions that will impact world peace, the war on terror or the Falcon’s draft picks next year but they are important to us as parents. Why? Because they are questions from our children - they are questions that are important to our children therefore they are important to us. God sees our questions the same way. The request we present to him may have absolutely no relevance at all on His plan for our lives but, because we are His children and because we take those requests seriously so does God. He cares about us more than we can ever know. His love for us is a love so deep and sincere that we can never fully understand it. We should never be afraid to take any request to Him and lay it at his feet. You may say, “But, so many times He doesn’t give me what I’ve asked for or told Him that I needed.” We’ve somehow developed a mentality that says, “If I don’t get what I ask of God He doesn’t like me, doesn’t care about me, doesn’t hear me or maybe doesn’t have time to deal with me or, worse even, maybe God doesn’t love me.” Maybe God chooses not to give us all that we implore of Him because our request or requests, at that particular time, aren’t in our best interest. One day I was in Wal-Mart with my nine year old son. He was five at the time. As we passed the glass case that housed a large display of knives and other hunting equipment, he pointed to a large hunting knife. I mean it was a BIG knife – probably about ten or eleven inches long. He pointed to this really, really big knife and said, “Daddy, can I have that knife?” Of course, my prompt and certain reply was a resounding, “NO! No, you cannot have that knife son, I’m sorry.” Let’s review my son’s request and my answer. Why did I say no? Why did I not allow him to have what he had requested of me? Did I not like him? Did I not care about him? Did I not hear his question correctly? Was it that I didn’t have enough time to deal with his request? Did I not love him? Of course I like him! Yes I heard him correctly! Definitely I care about him! Certainly I had time to deal with his request if necessary and absolutely I love him, more than he could ever imagine. So why then would I not allow him that simple request? Why you ask? Simple, he would have cut his leg off! It wasn’t in his best interest! I didn’t deny his request because I didn’t love him. If lack of love for my son had been my motivation, then whether or not he amputated a limb would have been of little consequence in my mind. If I didn’t love him there would have been little or no thought given to his well being and safety. But, the truth is I DO LOVE HIM! And I did not want to see him hurt. I knew he was not old enough, wise enough or mature enough to handle a weapon like that at that particular point in his life. Will he ever reach a point in his life when I feel like he can correctly handle something like that knife? Yes, there will be! He will grow in wisdom and maturity. He will one day be able to make wise decisions and better understand the consequences of mishandling an eleven-inch, razor sharp blade of steel. One day he will more fully comprehend the dangers of allowing a five-year old to own a dangerous weapon. One day he will understand that cutting your leg off is not a good thing. One day he will understand that I denied him the knife because I DID love him, not because I DID NOT!
Sometimes when we pray, “… nevertheless, not what I want God, but what You want”, sometimes when we pray, “God, do what You know is best for me, in spite of what I want” we won’t get what we wanted or even what we were certain we needed. But, as we mature, we may get it. We may receive what we’ve asked for when we or more mature and able to handle it. On the other hand, we may never get what we’ve asked God for or what we were confident we needed. But maybe, if we’re honest with ourselves and if we truly trust God, we will, someday, realize that not getting everything we want from God is not a bad thing. As we mature as Christians and as our faith grows, we will be able to use the word ‘nevertheless’ with confidence – the confidence that God knows far more than we do and that He cares about us far more than we will ever comprehend.

“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.” (Luke 22:41-43)