Hi, and welcome to Jesus Over Everything, a short practical podcast that mixes encouragement,

the Bible, how-chews, and fantastic interviews for the listener on the go. I'm Lisa Whittle,

and thanks for spending just a few minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be time well spent.

So excited to be back with you today for our first Devo show of November. I love

fall. I love the weather. I love the chai lattes, the colorful leaves, all of it. Thanksgiving

is around the corner. So can we just freeze this time of year seriously? Let's get into it today.

Today is a show I have personal experience with and I dare say all of us do in some way.

It's also something one of our Bible heroes experienced in a big way, too.

I want to talk about this. What do we do when something we really want is withheld from us?

And especially this, is God punishing us for something or is it a result of

maybe natural consequences? And in either case, how do we deal? Big stuff. Let's go.

All right, let's pull this out and pull it apart. First, let's start with honesty. We don't like

things withheld from us. We just don't. We are humans who want what we want when we want it,

and we aren't good at knows or even really weights, and especially we don't like things that don't

make sense to us. I hope you listen to my interview with Casey Van

Norman on Tuesday talking about how God redeems our past no matter what. And one of the things I think

we often miss is how God redeems even the times of our deepest longings. And yes, even rejections

and withholdings.

Not long ago I had something that I really wanted.

I mean, it was something I had longed for for a very long time.

And in fact, it looked like God might give it to me after a long time of looking like

he never would.

...