Our mission trip having finished, it was time to head home. Kevin Harrison (the founder of West Coast Bible College and Seminary) and I had spent 10 days in South Africa training more than 60 pastors and meeting with a governmental accrediting agency.
The last few days of the trip, Kevin noticed that the seat between our seats was open. His Delta Airlines phone app showed other seats getting filled, but this one wasn’t. Finally, we boarded the plane that would take us from Johannesburg to Atlanta and prepared ourselves for a long flight. 18 hours to be precise!
As people kept walking down the aisles, no one took that open seat. Kevin and I praised God because that vacancy would give us extra elbow room and also provide a spot for some of our gear.
We joked that the seat remaining empty would prove that God loved us. He cared enough to make us more comfortable!
After a while, no more passengers boarded. He did love us!
And then, a few minutes later, a lady took the seat.
Even though I was only kidding about God’s love being determined by a vacancy, I half believed it.
I was practicing daisy theology: “He loves me, he loves me not!” Pluck one petal, representing an empty seat, and this showed God’s devotion. Pluck another petal, symbolizing that chair now occupied, and He didn’t care.
I reminded myself that the death of Christ on the cross demonstrated God’s love, but my feelings argued a different point. Romans 8:32 suggests that besides giving us Jesus, the Lord will lavish us with a rich array of blessings. Amen!
So how should we respond to unanswered prayers or overlooked desires? Explode in anger? Blow them off as insignificant? Argue with God under our breath?
Or learn?
Initially, I discerned nothing of spiritual significance; I just accepted the fact that the seat was now taken. That’s a step in the right direction, but the Lord opened my eyes to a couple of other things.
That woman needed to fly to America, and the available seat could very well have served as an answer to her prayers. I already had my seat, so my need was met. But hers wasn’t until she boarded the plane. The mature response would be for me to be happy for her because the Lord had blessed her.
This experience exposed something in me. Too often, I take things personally. I fear that an unanswered prayer means that God doesn’t love me. But it doesn’t. The Bible tells us that problems can’t separate us from the love of God. Nothing can!
The more I concentrate on Jesus, the less little disappointments matter. The more I focus on Christ, the better I can handle major trials and difficulties.
Don’t restrict how the love of God operates in your life. Pulling flower petals won’t make someone love or not love you. In the same way, circumstances don’t determine whether the Lord cares for you. The cross displays God’s heart toward you. He’s held nothing back.
Give Him your bad attitudes and faulty thinking; let His Spirit draw you closer to Jesus who forgives. It’s how your spiritual life grows.
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