“How are you today?”

How many times have you answered that question with “good” when you really wanted to reply with this – “I’m just terrible!  I haven’t been feeling well lately and I have a whole lot of stuff going on in life that’s really hard to deal with!”

Sometimes as Christians I think we have this idea in our heads that just because we have Jesus we should be feeling happy all the time. I also think that when a prayer goes seemingly unanswered that makes things even harder.

Our God is supposed to answer every prayer…right?? But what happens when he doesn’t?

Unfortunately, we don’t get everything we ask for.

I do know that God hears every single one of my prayers, but the truth is he hasn’t answered every single one of my prayers in the way that I asked him to, and some I have been praying and waiting for a really long time, still with no answer.

I have quite a few prayers that I’m glad he didn’t answer my way because His way came out way better than mine. But then there are those other prayers like when my brother died or when my friend’s cancer got worse and she died too that I was not happy with his way. Those kinds of prayers do seem to happen a lot.

I know there are reasons as to why they died and others live or why one person suffers more than another. I’m not sure if I will ever get to know any of those reasons but I can tell you one thing I do know… I saw my friend cling to Jesus as she went through her last days and she seemed at peace and also through it all she was encouraging others and bringing them to Him!

Sometimes I’ve found that some of the biggest encouragers I know have some pretty bad ‘stuff’ going on in their lives but not all of them share that they are struggling with others.

Why are we like this when the truth is bad stuff just happens and we can’t be feeling good all the time!

I heard the following song on the radio recently and I loved it because the singer is talking about his job of standing on the stage night after night reminding broken people that it will be alright… when he himself isn’t doing very well.

This song encourages me because I have felt this way.

‘I know your able and I know you can, save through the fire with your mighty hand. But even if you don’t, My hopes is you alone’ (lyrics by Mercyme)

Haven’t we all felt this way at one time or another?

One thing to remember is this – no matter what you are going through Jesus is faithful and he will walk through it with you. He will even carry you if needed. ALWAYS.

My hope is Jesus alone.