Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jeremiah 33:3 ESV
Sometimes God’s greatest answer to our prayers isn’t changing our circumstances. It’s showing us more of Himself.
Marcus had been praying for months, asking God to change a hard situation in his life. Then, while reading through the Bible book of Job, he noticed something he’d never seen before. “I’ve been learning there’s a difference between asking God to change something and asking God to show us something,” Marcus said.
After devastating loss, Job wishes he had never been born. When God finally answers, chapters later, He doesn’t explain the suffering. Instead, God takes Job on a tour of creation: the stars, the oceans, the mountains, the animals. Marcus said, “It’s almost like God was saying, ‘Look at who I am. I know every detail of what I’ve made, and I know every detail of your life.’“
That thought became deeply personal for Marcus during his season of waiting. He kept praying earnestly for change, but he didn’t want to reach the end of it and only be able to say, “Look at what God did.” He wanted to be able to say, “Look at who God showed Himself to be along the way.”
The Bible book of Jeremiah records God’s invitation: “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” (Jeremiah 33:3 ESV). Maybe you’re praying for God to change something today. Keep praying that prayer. But maybe also ask, “Lord, what do You want to show me about Yourself here?”
Because sometimes God changes our circumstances, and sometimes He walks us through them, and in both, He invites us to know Him more.
The God who answers our prayers is also the God who wants to be known.
