My soul needed a place it could live. I longed for my defeats to be infrequent visitations, not my victories. Beloved, our personalized lands of earthly promise are places we're invited by God to dwell in Christ. It's high time we stopped dropping in and started taking up residency.

We always pray for you that our God will … fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith. 2 Thessalonians 1:11

Then you will delight yourself in the Lord, and I will make you ride over the heights of the land. Isaiah 58:14

Oh, but God had a plan. A marvelous plan. He allowed Hannah to be childless so that she would petition God for a child instead of assuming it would be the normal result of marital relations. He also allowed Hannah to be deeply desirous of a child so she would dedicate him entirely to the Lord. He sovereignly planned for His word

God's will is always best even when we cannot imagine how. Surrendering to His will does not mean you lose. Ultimately, it means you win. Keep hanging on to that rope and let Him pull you over to His side. One day you'll understand. And you'll see His glory.

He will pray to God, and God will delight in him. That man will behold His face with a shout of joy. Job 33:26

If you dare to believe and yet don't get your miracle, God has a greater one planned. If what you desperately need or deeply desire is founded in the Word of God, don't let anyone tell you that God can't or that He undoubtedly won't. Remove the wonders from God, and you can no longer call Him wonderful.

A big difference exists between trying to manipulate God to give us what we want and cooperating with God so He can give us what He wants. The latter is our goal.

Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" (Luke 1:45)

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jer. 29:11). "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the devil, "plans to totally bankrupt you and to harm you, plans to make you hopeless and to destroy your future.

Instead, my Lord, You have promised that Your plans for Your people are plans to prosper and not to harm, plans to give us hope and a future. (Jer. 29:11)

I know the plans I have for you … plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11