The God Who Can Do Everything… But Sometimes Doesn’t – Part I
If God has the power to do all things – why didn’t He?
If we based our relationship with God on #Christiantok, we’d think walking with God meant church fits, blessings on demand, and soft-life aesthetics. But real walking with God…real discipleship comes with trials, unknowns, and seasons where absolutely nothing makes sense.
There are seasons where you genuinely believed. Fully. You trusted God. You heard from Him. You prepared and you obeyed. You did everything you were supposed to do. And still, the thing you prayed for didn’t happen. So, what do you do then?
In seasons of unmet expectations, confusion, and even loss, I have learned this:
“You must wrestle.”
Not run. Not pretend. Not perform the idea of Christianity. But wrestle – honestly – with God.
In Genesis 32, Jacob reached a moment where what God had promised him, and what he was living did not match. His reality contradicted what he’d been told, and his circumstances confronted his covenant. God had promised him that through him would come a great nation. Yet his brother sought to kill him, his uncle had cheated him and not surprisingly he was riddled with anxiety and fear. So, he wrestled, all alone, quite literally until daybreak with God.
Jacob struggled in exhaustion all night with God and was left limping. But he would not stop, until he was blessed.
And maybe you’re in that place too.
Wrestling is Not Doubt, It’s What Sons & Daughters Do
Let me say this from the jump: wrestling with God is NOT doubt.
It is not questioning God.
For He is God. He is the Creator of the heavens and earth.
Wrestling is relationship.
Wrestling is going to the Almighty in reverence and bearing your all.
Wrestling is what sons and daughters do.
Scripture shows us this repeatedly. Jacob wrestled. David asked question after question. Job poured out his heart to God to understand what he had done to be punished, yet God still called him righteous. Even Jesus prayed, “If it’s possible, let this cup pass from Me.” (Matthew 26:39) So trust me when I say this, God is not intimidated by your questions.
He is not fragile.
He is not insecure.
Nor is He threatened by your honesty.
Having faith does not mean silencing your questions. If anything, real faith invites you to bring them louder, because being God’s child means bringing everything to Him.
In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus shows this clearly. He invites the weary, the burdened, and the overwhelmed (aka the unpolished) to come to Him. He offers rest to the ones honest enough to admit they need it.
This became very real to me not too long ago. A friend called me asking what she should do because she had obeyed God, done everything He asked, and yet the situation looked like chaos. She was confused, overwhelmed, and honestly hurting.
I paused before responding.
Years ago, I might have given her the churchy reply: “Rest in God.” “Just pray.” But now? I know better. Let’s just say I’ve been through some things.
So I told her, “You must wrestle.” Because that’s exactly where I was myself. Wrestling.
Sometimes the real spiritual answer is not to suppress what you feel, but to wrestle with it in God’s presence, to speak honestly to Him, to bring your burning soul-questions and emotions straight to the One who can actually respond.
I’ve learned that God does not despise our honesty. Instead, He uses it.
Psalm 51:17 tells us He draws near to the brokenhearted and the contrite in spirit. This is where He does business. This is where He shapes us. So, when life blindsides you in ways you never saw coming — do. not. run. from. God. I repeat:
Do NOT run from God.
Do not hide your frailty from the One who already sees it. Take the emotions you don’t even have language for yet back to Him, even if only a few words can come out. Bring all of it to Him.
This isn’t the end of faith.
This is what prepares your heart for the next part of the journey.
When Actions Don’t Change the Outcome
In my own wrestling, I have learned something that took me years to accept.
Doing everything “right” does not always guarantee the result you hoped for, or the way in which you hoped the result would come.
And that, my friends, is one of the hardest truths in the walk of faith.
You can obey, prepare, sacrifice, pray, steward everything well… and still not receive the thing you believed for.
This is often where the wrestle begins. Not because you did something wrong, but because you cannot understand why doing the “right things” didn’t produce the “right outcome.”
There are universal laws that work for everyone — the just and the unjust.
Sowing and reaping works.
The rain falls on both the righteous and the wicked.
But faith? Faith is not a formula.
It’s not, “Do X and God must do Y.”
God will not be reduced to an equation or manipulated.
He is God, not a vending machine.
He sees in generations, not just your life.
You see, obedience is not a transaction.
Obedience is trust in motion.
Let me say something that might free somebody.
You can do all the “right” things and still be in the waiting.
And someone else can do one tiny thing — or nothing at all — and receive the very thing you cried over. Tell me, what formula explains that?
If you try to live your walk with God through your formulas and equations, this will break you.
You’ll start thinking: “Maybe I did something wrong…” “Maybe God is punishing me…”
“Maybe I didn’t pray enough…” “Maybe I didn’t fast correctly…” “Maybe it’s sin… maybe it’s warfare… maybe it’s some altar…”
And listen, sometimes it is one of those things.
Sometimes God exposes a mindset, a wound, or a spiritual blockage.
Sometimes it’s disobedience.
Sometimes it’s warfare.
But sometimes it is none of those things.
Sometimes the only explanation is a mystery revealed in hindsight.
Sometimes it’s simply that God writes different stories for different people — and in time, the reasons are revealed.
In full transparency, I’ve fallen into that spiral more times than I can count.
Shoot. I have fallen, period.
I’ve obeyed and still failed.
I’ve trusted and still been disappointed.
Those lessons have been painful. The kind of pain that drives you into quiet places with God, whispering, “Lord, what is going on? What are You doing in me?”
Yet, even in those moments, God confronted me with this truth:
This is not a performance test.
This is not favoritism.
This is not a formula you can master.
This is relationship.
This is timing.
And I am with you.
Right here, in the wrestle.
In every season of confusion, apprehension and even anxiety God has met me. Every. Single. Time.
In the seeking, He became my stability.
In the silence, He became my friend.
In the unknown, He became my rock.
It is in these seasons of wrestling, God revealed to me something most of us don’t like to admit.
Some of us have been performing our whole lives.
Performing to be approved.
Performing to be loved.
Performing to be chosen.
So of course it feels strange when God says, “You cannot perform your way into intimacy with Me.” Because intimacy cannot be earned, only received.
You see, trusting and obeying God isn’t about receiving the things.
This is why we wrestle.
Not for the things, but for the THING.
HE IS THE “THING.”
The Source.
The outcome.
The beginning and the end.
God is the One we seek and receive.
Everything else is just the overflow.
That leads to the next truth.
This conversation will continue in Part II.