We pray for answers, but what happens when God's response doesn't match what we expected? When the door we were certain would open remains firmly closed? When the healing takes a different form? When the resolution we imagined doesn't materialize?
Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Those words sound beautiful, don't they? But they take on a new meaning when the path being made straight isn't the one we had envisioned in our hearts.
I've noticed something about my own heart. I often say I want God's will, but what I really mean is I want God to want what I want. I ask for guidance but secretly hope it aligns with the direction I've already chosen. I seek wisdom but get frustrated when it contradicts my plans.
Trust gets complicated when God's answer differs from our expectations. It's easy to trust when the path forward matches our preferred route. It's another thing entirely when it leads somewhere unexpected.
That's the challenge hidden within Proverbs 3:5-6. The verse doesn't just call us to trust God's heart; it specifically asks us not to lean on our own understanding. Not because our understanding is worthless, but because it's limited. We see only a fraction of the picture God sees in full.
Making our paths straight doesn't mean making them easy or predictable. Sometimes the straightest path to growth, to purpose, to wholeness takes unexpected turns.
I've found that disappointment often reveals blessings I wouldn't have discovered otherwise. The closed door guides us toward windows we might have missed. The unrealized dream allows for possibilities we couldn't have imagined.
What if trust isn't about getting what we want but about receiving what we need? What if submission isn't surrendering our desires but expanding them to include greater possibilities?
When you're facing an answer that isn't what you expected – a situation unfolding differently than you hoped – remember that trust isn't tested in moments of alignment. It's shaped in moments of redirection.
God's "no" is never just a denial. It's always a redirection toward something else. His closed doors aren't rejections but protections. His silence isn't absence but an invitation to listen differently.
Whatever unexpected answer you're facing, consider what new direction might be opening. What growth might be possible that wouldn't have been on your original path?
Trust isn't the absence of disappointment or confusion. It's the willingness to keep walking forward even when the path looks different than you imagined.
Sometimes, the greatest blessings arrive in ways we never saw coming.