by Carolyn Majoran
Quite a while ago, Ray and I watched the movie Facing The Giants. It was a feel-good, fairly well produced Christian movie that basically showed that through prayer and spending time fostering a relationship with Christ you can receive all that you've asked for. If you've seen this movie then you know (*SPOILER ALERT*) that the infertile couple miraculously get pregnant and his football team wins the big game. Warm fuzzies, right? Not for me.
If you know anything about us, you know that Ray and I struggled with infertility for many years. We prayed for a child continuously. We shared our pain with friends and family so that they could pray with us. It seemed that God was not answering our prayers. Instead, I was left reeling from what felt like a complete betrayal from the relationship that meant the most to me outside of my relationship with my husband. If prayer and working at a relationship with Christ was all that would have brought a child into my life, I would have been pregnant.
My biggest issue with this movie is the message it sends to those watching – God will give you what you ask for, as you've asked for it. That is not always the case. In His great wisdom, God withheld a biological child from us because He knew that He had a greater gift to give us. While the road was painful for many years, when we were lead to adopt, God placed Adalai into our lives more quickly than we ever anticipated! She is our miracle child regardless of her being carried in another mother's womb. She is the child God intended for us.
My firm belief, after years spent pleading with God to give me my heart's desire in the way I wanted it to be fulfilled, is that our prayers need to be rightly focused. If what I am asking for is not in God's plan for my life, it won't matter how many times I request it. Through my struggle with infertility, I learned to pray for what was God's will for me. And beyond that, if my heart's desire was not His desire for me then I needed Him to remove it from me.
This simple change in how I approached God in my request changed me completely. After 5 years of praying about our infertility, God certainly knew what I'd be asking for. But, I began pleading for His will to be done even though it may not be my will. I began pleading for Him to remove the desire to have a biological child if He did not intend for me to be pregnant. It was not an instant miracle but it did happen. About 7 months before we adopted our daughter I felt a significant change within me. I was finally at peace with never having biological children. I was ready to accept whatever God had in store for us. God had changed my heart to be more like His in preparation for the wonderful gift He had planned for us.
As for what the movie portrays, I'm not saying God doesn't answer people's prayer in the exact manner they ask. He certainly does! He's an all-powerful God and can do great and mighty deeds! I would simply ask you to consider the times that you may feel God is not answering your prayers or maybe giving a "not yet" answer. These are the times when you need to lean on Him and truly seek His will for your circumstance. It may take years – believe me, I know! But the reward is worth the wait.
Keys of Inspiration:
Matthew 6:5-14 (key verse 6:10): "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
Matthew 26:39: "...nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will."
Nicole C. Mullen - Watch the Kingdom Come video