Who is God – Part Two

This is a continuation of my previous article called “Who is God”… Here is another example of how God surprises me: About few around years ago 2003 or 2004, I remembered a very intriguing book I had read in the Bible in 1999. You see, before I became a Christian in 1999 in Jordan at the age of 16 I read the Bible from cover to cover. Reading the Bible for the first time was, and still is until today, the most exciting experience I had ever gone through.

But one book stood out from the rest like no other to me: the book of Hosea. The book of Hosea stood out to me because being a Middle Eastern young man made the idea of God asking a prophet to marry an adulterous woman a very strange idea to me. So I decided that I was going to read the book of Hosea but this time, unlike the previous times, I was going to read it for its message only, not because I was reading the Bible cover to cover.

By the time I finished the book I was shocked beyond measure not only because the unexpected imagery God used to describe His love for us—His beloved—but also because I realized: I will never ever be able to experience personally how to love like God loves me. “What does it mean for God to love the way He loves us?”, I asked myself. (I was not asking: how can I experience God’s love to me. I was asking: how can I experience loving someone as God loved me.) Even if I got married in the future and had kids I will not be able to understand the love He described in Hosea, because this love was not a father’s love for his children but a love of a perfect lover towards an unfaithful stranger whom He calls His beloved! This was not our heavenly Father’s love, but the love God mentioned in Romans 5:8:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

It is God’s love toward His enemies—us!

So I knelt on my bed and prayed:

“Lord, if it is your will give me a wife that will challenge my capacity to love. Give me a wife that through her you will enable me to understand even if to a much smaller degree how it feels for You, completely Holy, to love someone like me, completely sinful and undeserving of Your love.”

After I prayed that prayer I was very scared and one of my thoughts was: will God ask me to marry a promiscuous woman like He asked Hosea?! There is no way I can put into words how terrifying it is for a Middle Eastern man to pray that prayer. Yet, somehow inside of me I knew it was a prayer that pleased God, even if it wasn’t the typical “perfect Christian” prayer, my motive at least was good: to experience how it feels to love someone the way God loves me.

Then I thought, “Dr. Charles Stanley says: don’t worry about praying the wrong prayer, because your heavenly Father won’t just give you something that’s harmful, just because you asked for it! He desires your best, and so when you pray for the wrong things but with good motives He will answer your prayers in a way that fits His will and plan for your life.” Those were very comforting words.

Then a year later my sister, who admires Joyce Meyer a lot, told me how Joyce Meyer was saying jokingly, “When my husband was single and in ministry he prayed: Lord, give me a wife that will challenge my faith and put it to the test!” I smiled, but inside I was rejoicing! I was not crazy! I had not prayed an outrageous prayer! Another person has prayed a similar prayer too!

Then about a couple of months ago I was listening to Paul Washer and he said something like this:

“God probably won’t give you a wife that fits the perfect image you have of her in your mind. He probably wants to give you a wife that will challenge your faith!”

That left me stunned, for the second time in four years or so I hear this! Now, I know: there is nothing wrong with praying that prayer! At times our prayers seem like they are the “outrageous” prayers of someone who doesn’t know much about God, and His Holiness, but in reality they could be the most perfect prayers we could ever pray.

You are probably asking by now, “What does this have to do with the topics above?” Well, about a week ago I was talking to God about my future wife, and I felt Him telling me, “What about that prayer you asked of Me few years ago? Have you completely forgotten about it? Do you still want me to answer it? Because if I am going to answer it then she will be nothing like the woman you are telling me about now!” That caught me off guard because I had indeed forgotten all about that prayer. Again I had to think hard about who God is, because I had obviously not understood His character well to think that He will not do this or that, or answer a prayer like this or that.

As you reflect on your relationship with God, what surprises you the most about when He answers your prayers? Share your thoughts below in the comments section.