For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Donna NaQuin
I've had that happen to me too. I fasted and prayed, when I was looking for a job. I then asked God to go before me to open the right doors and close the wrong doors. I went to the job I felt was "the job God wanted me to have", and it turned out to be the worst nightmare ever. I was talking to a friend in my life group and he said the same thing happened to him. This happened to me 10 years ago and God still hasn't revealed to me what it was all about.
Charlie Brown
I know the feeling. "A hope deferred makes the heart sick." That really is a true statement. Sometimes I don't know what God is thinking. But I guess what would be the point of trust and faith if we did? Everything in this universe is worthless to God without our relationship with Him. God has infinite power, wisdom, and owns everything that exists. He can make it so that someone never has to work another day till they die but that be good for His and their relationship? Also since God knows everything He knows what I'm not ready for, certain dangers ahead, and also how I could be a danger to others. So He keeps me away from those things. *sigh* sometimes I just wish I knew His plan so I could roll with it. But really I'm probably not even ready for that. So I'll stay where I am.lol
Danny Hickman
So you fasted and prayed for a job. You got a job and thought it was a nightmare. Was it, or did you just not get what you expected? Our expectations can be very different from what God's purpose is in what He does in our lives. The bible is the place to look to see that God seldom does what we expect. It doesn't mean He wasn't involved, it could be that you wanted things to be a certain way, and when they weren't, you concluded that God wasn't in it. You concluded that your prayer was ignored. Was it?
Years ago I worked for a company. They went out of business. I was a new believer. I prayed for a job. I took the first job that came along. It was in a small company, I took it holding my nose. We shared a washroom with another company in the same building. It was a step down from what I was accustomed to. I worked half a day and went to my super and told him, 'Thanks, but I wasn't sure I wanted to stay.' He literally begged me to not quit, said it would be to my benefit to stay.
I thought to myself, 'Slow your roll; you're new at this "faith thing."' I decided to see how being in a situation that was clearly beneath where I thought I should be would turn out. Long story short, I bought my first home two years into working there.
When I left there they were still sharing a washroom with another company. It was a two bit operation that stayed two bit until it was bought by a larger company. I grew there in a way that I hadn't before. The rest is history, as they say...
Danny Hickman
Charlie Brown,
We do know what His plan is for us. It is for us to be conformed to the image of His Son. We simply don't know how He plans to do it. And we're not completely sure what that means. But that's clearly what the bible tries to get us to get our heads wrapped around. We're to be willing to sail a stormy sea if He says 'Let's go to the other side.'
To be conformed to His image is to be willing to "humble [yourself] and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil 2:8). There's no clearer image of who Jesus is than that. He's the suffering Servant.
Solomon served God from a palace with daily provisions that could feed a small army: Thirty cors of fine flour, six cors of meal, ten fat oxen, twenty pasture-fed cattle, a hundred sheep, besides deer, gazelles, roebuck and fattened fowl, for one day (1Kings 4:22,23).
Most of us would rather apply for the job at the palace than at the cross. The catch is that God doesn't recruit volunteers or accept applications, He conscripts and gives out assignments. That can be a little scary.
That's the God we pray to; the one who knows what we have need of before we even ask. The key to understanding all this is whether we want to be servants or masters of our own fate.