Just because you don’t have something that your heart longs for doesn’t mean God has forgotten you.

Many of us walk around with holes in our heart from the loss and difficulty we have experienced on earth. We wonder if God sees us or hears us and we’re tempted to become discontent and bitter with what He has allowed. I’ve been there.

But Scripture reminds us over and over again that hardship is an unavoidable part of our Christian walk and that God often works in those disappointments to shape our hearts to look like His.

Pause and read the following passages for more on this: John 16:33, Romans 12:11-12, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 5:9-10, Psalm 46, 2 Corinthians 11:23-33, 12:10, 2 Timothy 4:5.

Don’t forget that many of Jesus’ followers have and will face persecution, loss, and heartache that is unthinkable. Would we say that God has forgotten them? Of course not! And He has not forgotten YOU either. But His will for your life may look different than how you pictured it.

“We are prone to think that a change in circumstances is always the answer to a problem. But the problem is usually within us and not around us. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart.”

That quote reminds me that the discontentment and bitterness we feel is not a result of our CIRCUMSTANCES, but rather a result of our sinful HEART.

It is our heart we must lay before the Lord and ask Him to change. Let’s ask Him to mold it to His will as we wait—not for what we desire to come true, but for God’s purposes to be fulfilled WITHIN us!