So, I began writing this post before Jo's 'visa faff' took it's full hold but it all seems slightly more relevant now.
When people say that they want something to happen 'God willing' I often find it unnecessarily annoying because my first thought is that if you or I want something to happen then we will make it happen but that also if God doesn't want it to happen then it won't happen anyway. But, the process of learning that it doesn't really work like that isn't an easy one! Sometimes God intervenes, sometimes in different ways from how we would like and sometimes in the same way, not because God cannot answer but because sometimes it is not God's will to answer.
This is all hard to accept. God is a relational God. In Romans 12 Paul writes that we will be transformed through the renewing of our minds through God so that we can 'test and approve what God's will is'. Again it seems that it is a relational transformation from an understanding of only our own priorities and plans to those of God.
When people say that they want something to happen 'God willing' I often find it unnecessarily annoying because my first thought is that if you or I want something to happen then we will make it happen but that also if God doesn't want it to happen then it won't happen anyway. But, the process of learning that it doesn't really work like that isn't an easy one! Sometimes God intervenes, sometimes in different ways from how we would like and sometimes in the same way, not because God cannot answer but because sometimes it is not God's will to answer.
This is all hard to accept. God is a relational God. In Romans 12 Paul writes that we will be transformed through the renewing of our minds through God so that we can 'test and approve what God's will is'. Again it seems that it is a relational transformation from an understanding of only our own priorities and plans to those of God.
“Growing into maturity – whether it’s in a romantic relationship, a child-parent relationship or in a relationship with God – always involves a steady process of recentering from our own priorities and preferences to those of the other” - Pete Greig in God on Mute
Please pray about Jo's visa.
- Hannah
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