Our Responsive God

Dear Girl Mom,

When our girls were younger, we were attentive to their every need. We knew what they needed, often before they did, and we responded accordingly! With every fever, broken heart, or challenging homework assignment, we were right by their side.

This is exactly how our loving, responsive God cares for our needs and the needs of our daughters! He knows their hearts and innermost thoughts. We can trust Him to be responsive, providing for their needs in His perfect way and perfect timing.

Love,

Nicole & Stacy

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How is God Responsive?

In praying over how we can find hope for trusting our God is a responsive, I wonder if anyone is asking themselves, “What does this have to do with a relationship with our daughters?”

I would venture to suggest: everything.

I mean, how many of us have prayed over our children for their protection? Safety? Growth in faith or their personal belief in Jesus?

Do we pray those prayers in vain, thinking God is not going to act or respond?

No!

We trust that He hears our prayers, He is actively at work, and His will is done. We trust in His Word when it says that He is for us. And, we trust that our God is good—because He is.

Another question that comes to mind is:

“Will God really work in this situation? “

I find myself asking this question most often when it’s something I can’t possibly fix or do on my own. Yet, at the same time, I realize that the faithful act of prayer is our declaration to God that we do trust Him and we need Him. It’s our act of dependence on Him, and that is what Jesus desires: our heart and our dependence upon Him alone. We aren’t alone in our struggles.

Trust God's Word

If we look at Exodus 3:1-22, where God appears to Moses, verses 7-10 state,

The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.”

I see within this passage how God is so in tune with the Israelites’ suffering that, instead of passively watching to see if they can figure it out, He is responsive to their needs. He sets a plan in motion, using Moses, to rescue them from their situation.

But then Moses hesitates by asking the question,

“Who am I?”

There is profound comfort in how relatable this particular instance is. I mean, how many of us ask ourselves that very question when faced with having to lead through challenging situations? As we continue reading the passage, we find that God is responsive as He encourages and provides Moses with all he will need to complete the task God is calling Him to perform.

Yet again, such a moment of relatability! When we know God is calling us to do something or see that He’s working in our lives, our responsiveness and obedience conveys our love and trust in Him. It’s such an opportunity for our faith to grow.

The same remains true in our relationship with our girls. We can help offer prayer and guidance, and help them see how God has worked in their lives. What a blessing it is to highlight to them the many ways we have seen Him attentive to them, and remind them that He can be trusted in all things, even responsive.

Ebenezer Stone

Another verse in Scripture that reminds me of how our God is a responsive God and He can be trusted is 1 Samuel 7:12:

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far the Lord has helped us.'"

The prophet Samuel is placing an Ebenezer stone to commemorate and be a reminder to the Israelites over how, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” The word Ebenezer literally means the stone of help. Samuel desires for

God’s people to always remember and recall how God was for them, fought their battle, and brought them victory. They sought the Lord and He helped them find victory in battle.

This verse has been a reminder for me to recount, and record, all the times I have witnessed God showing up to fight my battles and answer my prayers. While we do have a literal Ebenezer stone in our home with this verse painted on it , I also consider my prayer journal an Ebenezer stone. It is filled with accounts of how our God has been responsive, lest I forget (because I will and I do!).

My written record is proof that God can be trusted, even if the outcome looks different than I had hoped or prayed. Many times He brings about an answer that blows my mind and knocks my socks off, because His answer and His ways are so completely different than anything I would have ever considered possible.

Posture of Remembrance

Being in a posture of remembrance is something that has helped me learn to freely put my trust in God. It allows me to see all the ways He has responded to my prayers. But I want to be careful because there are circumstances where God does respond, but not in the way we hoped or asked for. Yet that doesn’t mean that He isn’t responsive. It simply means His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9).

In a posture of remembrance, we need to remember who God is as Lord and Savior. Especially when surrounded by a cloud of circumstances that we simply do not understand, recounting our Lord’s attributes of goodness, faithfulness, and compassion are incredibly helpful to recount. They bolster our faith as we walk through situations that are difficult or tragic.

Personal Story: God is Responsive

One incredible instance that I, Stacy, want to hold in a posture of remembrance is how God has worked within the relationship between myself and our oldest daughter. To say that these last three years have been an emotional roller coaster would be an understatement. Although I won’t go into great detail, because so much of it is simply not my story to share, but our daughter’s; I will whole-heartedly share how God gets all the glory in bringing about healing, reconciliation, and restoration.

Our oldest and I lived estranged for a year and a half. I grieved deeply every single day during this time of separation and silence. It has been a time in life where my faith was tested, put into action, and I wrestled with how deeply I could trust God.

In utter discipline, I turned to Him, sought His Word, and found solace in my prayer journal writing prayers to

Him. I also wrote letters to my daughter, ones that she may very well never see. I literally placed my faith on the altar and trusted that God was with me, holding me, and walking with me. In His grace and faithfulness, I found Him upholding me time and time again through the power of His Word and speaking into specific situations.

He ultimately asked me to trust Him, allowing Him to do the work, and for me to let go of all things, especially control and thinking I could fix things myself.

Through it all, He showed me how He was at work. He answered my prayers to protect our girl.

Did He bring her out of her situation as quickly as I desired?

No.

But He did so in His perfect timing.

Did He restore our relationship as quickly as I wanted?

No.

But He did so in His perfect timing, and He continues to do so.

It took a lot for me to lay down my desire to fix all things, surrender control, and trust God to mend the broken path my daughter and I were on, in His timing. Yet, the only way I found to survive the grief, the pain, and the craziness of the circumstance, including all that I did not understand, was to let go.

Let go and let God.

I had to trust Him. And, in that, trust Him to be responsive. The beauty is how I have found Him faithful, time and time again.

Today I live having a restored relationship with our daughter. In fact, we just enjoyed an amazing vacation together backpacking through the Colorado wilderness. She has been restored to me, and God alone gets all the glory.

He did that. And, He will do it for you as you seek, trust, and surrender it all to Him. It may not look the way you hoped or expected, but He will be faithful to work for the glory of His goodness and will.

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Lord Jesus,

We give you praise for being the Lord of our lives and our Prince of Peace. We pray over every parent out there that their hope in you will be restored, no matter the difficult or hard circumstance they may find themselves enduring. Reveal Yourself to them in the midst of their situation. We pray that we continue to trust and see how You are our responsive God. May all of us cling to Your goodness and know that You, God, are for us.

May we continue to keep turning to You with everything we have and may we find ourselves upheld by Your great. May we each hold a posture of remembrance over how You, God, take great delight in us.

Amen