Summary: <br> All this week our devotionals together will be inspired by the first song that pops up on shuffle play from our BIG Life Morning playlist on Spotify. Yes, we have a morning playlist of upbeat Christian songs and you should totally check it out! Every morning these are the songs I jam out to while I brush my teeth and glue on my fake eyelashes.<br> So, here’s the plan for the week. I wake up at 4:30, I ask God to be in complete control of the song that plays and make it the perfect one fit for what we need today, then I hit shuffle play. The song that plays will become the day’s episode of the BIG Life Devotional Podcast. I find that exciting! What does God have up his sleeve? It’s like a fortune cookie ya’ll!<br> This morning I was extra pumped to pop out of bed and see what song played first. I prayed, then I hit that little green shuffle play button with anticipation of greatness.<br> And I was mildly disappointed. It wasn’t the song I had hoped for. Out of all the songs I’ve added to the BIG Life Mornings playlist, it’s one of my least favorites. So I immediately begin reasoning how and why I should just hit that green button again and get a different song.<br> Isn’t this what we often do in our prayer life? We faithfully ask for God’s divine guidance, fully trusting he has the power to move mountains and part seas, knowing he hears and he cares, then we receive an answer we don’t like and we begin reworking the plan. We doubt his answer. We reason why our way is better than his way he has shown.<br> Please tell me I’m not alone in this. I can’t be the only one who is tempted to meddle in God’s answers when I get an answer I don’t love. This week we’re praying over potentially buying a house in Texas. Not that we’ll settle down there, but it’s a great financial investment and it sure would be fun to offer our house on Airbnb to bless other travelers like us. So we prayed for God to lead us to the right house. Then we found the one we loved, the one with the backyard we envisioned family gatherings, the one I sat in front of and mentally just moved right on into. We called the realtor and discovered in the 3 days it had been on the market, 4 contracts were already written.<br> In all our searching, we can’t find another home we like as much. Nothing comes even close.<br> Dang it God, did you mess this one up? God, were you off in your timing? God, did you forget about us? God, your plan kinda looks less than my plan.<br> I’m talking about houses for sale … what about when it’s a life changing medical diagnoses you’ve prayed over and you get the answer you didn’t want? What about when it’s your child you’re praying for and the prayers don’t seem to work? What about when it’s your job and that job ends?<br> God heard your prayer. He is sovereign over every situation. He is answering, however sometimes his answers don’t align with the predetermined answer we had in mind.<br> THOUGH WE OFTEN WONDER WHY GOD DOES WHAT HE DOES, WE CAN BE SURE HE DOES IT ON BETTER INFORMATION.<br> We see the here and now, God sees the end from the beginning. We imagine the immediate impact, God imagines the eternal impact. We’re dealing with odd puzzle pieces that don’t seem to fit while God knows exactly where each piece is destined to come together to make something beautiful, you just haven’t seen the top of the box yet honey.<br> Can you trust that when you pray, God does answer. Always. He answers. Not always in the way we imagined, but always in the way that is best. Now, can we just get out of the way and let God do his thing? And yes, this starts in the smallest of things … like trusting when I asked God to let the first song played this morning on shuffle play be the song we all needed for our devotional time.<br>
