He’s MORE - 2/24/2024

By: Hannah Romaine

Our Church plant has been doing Experiencing God together since the beginning of 2024 and Unit 6 was like an internal wrestling match against myself and my traumas. The very first line for the unit reads: “Pray for one thing…and receive another.” The author explains that after having his devotional reading in Mark 2, the Holy Spirit impressed on his heart how the 4 men who brought their paralytic friend to Jesus to be healed and even opened a roof to get him in the presence of the Healer, looked on in anticipation only to hear Jesus initiate conversation with him by saying: “Son, your sins are forgiven.” This was not why they had brought him, this was not their prayer. Why would He say this? Clearly, it was their friend’s truest and deepest need. At this revelation the author cried out “God, if I ever ask you for something and you have something better for me than what I am asking, please, cancel my request!” Upon reading this my hurting heart literally recoils. Could this be true in my life? Am I able to pray this prayer? Could it be that God did not answer the request for healing my son from his cancer because he wanted to give us all something better? Something we needed more? What could be more? The author goes on to write, “I have found that God always gives me more than I could ask for…You do not know how to ask in prayer for something that is even close to what God wants to give you.” What does this mean? I can feel the internal stirring of the Holy Spirit saying, “Yes. This. Press into this question.” But it hurts to think about, because my suffering is so palpable, so real, so present, inconsiderate and consistent. So my motherhood desperately cries out, “WHAT!? What could God possibly want to give me that would be MORE than having my beautiful boy next to me?!” You probably won’t be surprised, but the answer to my question, did not come in a landslide of rocks falling down a mountain side, on a wind so strong the earth itself gives way, or in a raging fire or earthquake, but a low whisper. “It’s Me Hannah. A deeper understanding of Myself and the powerful promise and delivery of My comfort. Me, I AM.” Only He could fill in that blank of the “better thing”. So my cry of desperation melts into uncontrollable tears of worship at this thought, and a peace deeper than anything I can describe overwhelms me. It’s Him! It’s HIM! Are you experiencing a prayer you pray in desperation being answered in a way that seems contrary to your petition? Get ready, get ready to be met with something better, that satisfies your deepest unseen needs, the ones even unbeknownst to you. It’s Him. He is so much more.