Who Can Tell...

2Sa 12:22 And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept: for I said, Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?


We have NO way of knowing what God will do in our lives, what God will allow. We often pray for *things* whether those things are certain situations, or whether they're for actual items, specific desires it doesn't matter does it? We pray asking God for whatever is on our minds, our hearts at the time. And we pray without knowing whether or not 'GOD will be gracious to us.' As long as the there is hope for a prayer prayed in expectation we keep praying. At the bedside of a sick loved one, at the race yet unfinished, during the test as it is being taken, at the interview still hoping to influence, for the results not yet given, for the life as yet unfulfilled, seeking goals. Once that loved one is healed or succumbs to their illness the situation is over. When the race is finished, the outcome is decided. The test submitted and graded is done. The interview ended any influence. The results known cannot be altered. The desires of the heart found, the goals met, and there is no reason to continue to pray for these things, right? To keep seeking divine intervention after a situation is decided is pointless. David sought for God's intervention in his favor, in favor of his young child, but once the outcome was revealed David no longer had reason to believe any of his weeping or fasting would change a thing. As long as there was hope David earnestly sought God's change of heart. Until the answer is revealed in anything- there is hope of obtaining God's graciousness.


Did David continue to weep and fast after he was given the undesired outcome of all his fasting and weeping? No. Obviously this wasn't the expected reaction of others. They expected David to fast and weep even more after receiving the undesired reply to all his supplication for His son. His young son was dead, this was cause for great weeping and fasting, mourning and carrying on. It wasn't to be though, David could not bring back His son. David knew his own sin had brought about the tragedy and none of his pain, none of his agonizing over the impending death changed that decree of the Lord's. How often we pray for things, how often we agonizing in desiring different outcomes, and the time to agonize in hope of God's graciousness is before the result, not after. That's not to say we shouldn't be devastated by any great loss we experience, it's natural to be so, but it would be foolhardy of us if we continued on in the same entreating vein of hope for something that cannot be changed.

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Isa 38:1 In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz came unto him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order: for thou shalt die, and not live.
Isa 38:2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD,
Isa 38:3 And said, Remember now, O LORD, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
Isa 38:4 Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying,
Isa 38:5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.

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Joel 1:14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the LORD your God, and cry unto the LORD,
Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joel 2:14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

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Amos 5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

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Jonah 1:6 So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

Jonah 3:9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?
Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

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Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

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Who can tell whether God will be gracious?


We cannot be presumptuous and believe that God will not be gracious towards us. We cannot be filled with pessimism erring on the side of defeat. We must have hope. We must believe as we encounter each and every obstacle in life's way that there is hope that God will be gracious. His choice not to be gracious is not for us to understand or question. We have to believe that God who knows the end from the beginning knows how the ultimate decision will work for good to all those who love Him.


God can be gracious and we cannot allow ourselves to forget this. We cannot let anyone tell us to give up our hope, no one can tell whether God will be gracious and any who presume to be able to tell is a liar. God decides without counsel from any man on whether or not He will be gracious. God and God alone knows.


People might say all the crying in the world won't change a thing, but I say they're wrong. All the crying in the world might change something, we don't know, we just don't know. When we feel the need to weep and fast, to seek God's graciousness through our repentance and sorrow, don't hold back with the idea that what will be - will be. Yes, it is what it is, but ONLY once it is, not before. What will be doesn't have to be what we believe it will be. God's will be done in all things, yes, and no other's will certainly not mine. God knows the end from the beginning, and trusting in God for His will to be done does not mean we shouldn't entreat Him. We must entreat Him- and our faith, our trust in His will must be fully realized after we receive whatever answers we are seeking- good or bad, desired or undesired.


In His love! In His mercy, by His grace always!!!


Amen.