God Always Shows Up, Just Not Always The Way We Expect

As a man of faith, I believe in the power of prayer. I have seen prayers answered. I know that I do not pray as much as I should. However, I have prayed enough to know that when believers ask God to act on their behalf, He always does. The answer, however, may not be what we want it to be.

Sometimes, the answers are straight forward. I can’t help but use my recent Uber driving experiences to illustrate a definitive yes from God. I started driving for Uber last December, working 10 hours a week, to supplement my unemployment after being laid off.

These days, I drive roughly 30 hours a week. I have spent a considerable amount of time learning from other drivers, with the help of AI, how to beat the algorithm. What I have learned is that whenever I think I have it figured out, something changes or even proves me wrong.

Before every shift, I pray for safety and good rides. I have been doing this since the beginning. Over the last couple weeks, I have started asking the Lord to deliver me the rides He wants me to accept.

On most occasions I can recall, the Lord has blessed me with either just enough rides to keep me busy, profitable rides to make me income, or both. This happens regardless of what the app says in regards to income potential or ride availability.

It doesn’t happen every day or every shift, but the Lord continuously shows up for me so that by the end of the week, I am at least hitting my target and sometimes crushing it. I would classify these as the clear cut yes answers.

There are other times when the Lord will answer a prayer with a yes, but then immediately tests you on what you asked for. The best example I have of this one is an all to familiar prayer for patience.

More times than I can count, I’ve asked the Lord for patience in a given situation. He will usually answer me with an immediate increase in my patience for the moment. A reminder to breath, a quite whisper to “stay calm, I am here with you.”

Then, right on cue, I will be thrust into one or more situations that require a super-human amount of patience; there’s the test. I wanted patience, but am I going to use it beyond the initial reason? God uses these tests to build consistency and fortitude.

Sometimes the answer is just no. We often think of these as unanswered prayers, but in reality, it’s not unanswered, it’s just no. The no can be the absolutely not version, or the not right now version, but it’s not ignored, it’s no.

Often, the no is really a not yet. Sometimes we ask for things that the Lord does want to give to us, but our timing is off and God needs us to wait. Father knows best, am I right?

Many times, this is God testing our trust in Him. He wants to know that we can trust Him to do what is best for us, in the appropriate timing. And to be honest, our timing usually stinks.

Praying is not just about asking for things. We should pray for thanks for our blessings, our life, our faith, and most importantly, we should worship God with our prayers. Throughout the Bible, God tells us to pray.