When God Does It, Be Ready to Move

I was talking to my mother one evening about some of the changes that had happened in my life. Some were pretty major, and I remember telling her that change isn't always easy, but if you give yourself time, you do adjust.

That conversation made me think about how adjustable we really are when we're surrendered to God.

We can spend a lot of time praying for God to change something. We pray for healing, opportunity, deliverance, a new season, or simply for things to be different. But I don't know that we always prepare ourselves for what happens after God does it.

Sometimes the answer to our prayer requires something from us.

I was reminded of Aeneas in Acts 9:32–34. The Bible tells us that he had been bedridden for eight years because he was paralyzed. Eight years is a long time for your life to be confined to a particular way of living. He would have depended on other people. His mobility was limited. His world had probably become shaped around what he could no longer do.

Then Peter comes to him and says, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.”And Aeneas got up.

When I was studying that passage, I remember getting caught on the instruction to get up and take care of his bed. Why would that detail matter?

Then I thought about the fact that this was something he hadn't been able to do.

The healing didn't just free him from something. It freed him to something. His life now required movement.

Answered Prayer Changes the Way Forward

I think that's the part we can overlook when we're asking God to change something in our lives. We can become so focused on getting out of the current situation that we don't think much about who we'll need to be when we're no longer in it.

I've experienced that myself. There was a time when I used my faith to speak something concerning my life, and it happened. It just didn't happen the way I thought it would or in my timing.

I remember musing about one of my experiences with a coworker. In this instance, I could clearly see that what I had believed God for had manifested, but the manifestation put me in a space I hadn't necessarily imagined. I had to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. I had to adjust to something new while still trusting that God knew exactly what He was doing.

That's one of the things I'm continuing to learn about walking with God. We can ask Him for something new while still having an attachment to what is familiar. We want the change, but sometimes we want everything surrounding us to remain the same. It doesn't always work that way.

When God changes a situation, there may be new responsibilities, new expectations, new ways of thinking, or simply a new rhythm that you have to learn. That doesn't mean the change wasn't God. Sometimes being uncomfortable is simply part of adjusting to a place you've never been before.

Aeneas couldn't remain in the bed trying to figure out what being healed was going to feel like. He had to get up. We do too.

If you've been praying for God to do something in your life, make room in your thinking for the possibility that His answer may require movement from you. It may not look exactly the way you pictured it. You may have to adjust. You may even feel uncomfortable for a while.

But when God does it, be ready to move.