Your Answered Prayer Feels Different Than You Expected
Key Takeaways
- When an answered prayer feels different or more complicated than expected, it is a lonely place to stand because people fear sounding ungrateful.
- Taylor Beebe's story of being adopted from Thailand, finding her birth mother through Holt's records and Facebook after twenty years, and realizing the reunion didn't match her mental picture highlights the complex emotions of answered prayers.
- The Hebrew phrasing behind Psalm 126:1 translates to 'like dreamers,' capturing the disorienting feeling of people who cannot tell whether what is in front of them is real.
- In Ezra, when the foundation of the second temple was laid, the older men wept while others shouted for joy, proving that Scripture honors both celebration and grief happening at the same time.
- Psalm 126 demonstrates that gratitude and ache can exist side by side, moving seamlessly from laughter and singing in verses 2 and 3 to asking God to restore fortunes in verse 4.
- Believers are encouraged to thank God for the exact answer He provided while simultaneously bringing Him the unvarnished picture of what they originally expected or lost.
The answer came and something unexpected came with it, and you can't say so without sounding ungrateful. Learn what Psalm 126 means by like a dream, and the scene in Ezra where weeping and shouting could not be told apart.
Maybe you prayed for something for years. The job. The restored relationship. And then it came. So you should be celebrating, and you are, in part. But the answer didn't look like what you pictured, and there's something else mixed in with the gratitude that you weren't expecting to feel. Here's what makes that a lonely place to stand. Say out loud that the answered prayer has a complication in it, and you sound ungrateful, or worse, like you're criticizing what God did. So you keep the second half to yourself and perform the first half.
This episode opens with Taylor Beebe, who was adopted from Thailand and raised in the United States. She had wondered about her birth mother for as long as she could remember, and she built a picture of that reunion in her head. In college she started looking. A name on the back of an old photo led her to a Facebook page, and Holt's records confirmed it. After twenty years she booked a flight to Thailand. What she found there didn't match the picture.
Psalm 126:1 says, "When the LORD brought back his exiles to Jerusalem, it was like a dream!" Start with that phrase, because we use it differently than the psalm does. We say a dream come true and mean everything landed the way we hoped. The Hebrew is k'cholmim, like dreamers, a picture of people who can't tell whether what's in front of them is real.
Now put that next to what the return from captivity was like on the ground. A small group came back to a city in ruins, with the walls down and the temple gone. It was the answer to seventy years of prayer, and it came smaller than anybody had pictured while they prayed for it.
There's a scene in Ezra worth handing to anybody in this situation. When they laid the foundation of the second temple, the older men who had seen the first one wept out loud while everybody else shouted for joy. Ezra says the two sounds mixed so completely that you couldn't tell them apart from a distance. Same day, same crowd. Some were celebrating what God had done and some were grieving what it wasn't, and the Holy Spirit saw fit to put both in the record without correcting either one.
Then look at what Psalm 126 does with itself. Verses 2 and 3 are laughter and singing, with the line that the LORD has done amazing things for us. Verse 4 turns right around and prays, restore our fortunes, LORD. They're still asking. The answer came, and four lines later they bring God the part that's still unfinished. Scripture puts the thanks and the ache side by side in one psalm.
Bart shares his own version of this, the picture he had in his head when he first sensed God calling him to preach, and the forty hours a week of things nobody pictures when they picture preaching.
BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER:
What the Hebrew behind "like a dream" in Psalm 126 points to The scene in Ezra where weeping and shouting could not be told apart Two sentences to pray tonight about the answer and the picture
Thank God for what He gave you, and let yourself grieve what you expected the answer to look like. Both can be true, and He understands the complication of a prayer finally answered.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What does Psalm 126 mean by 'like a dream'?
In the original Hebrew, the phrase means 'like dreamers,' describing a disoriented state where people cannot tell whether the reality in front of them is actually real, much like returning from captivity to a city in ruins.
Who is Taylor Beebe and how does her story relate to prayer?
Taylor Beebe was adopted from Thailand and spent twenty years wondering about her birth mother before finally locating her via Facebook and Holt's records. Her reunion in Thailand brought joy, grief, hope, sorrow, and love all at once, illustrating how answered prayers often come with unexpected emotional complications.
How can I process an answered prayer that has unexpected complications?
Give yourself permission to feel both gratitude and grief simultaneously by thanking God for what He provided while honestly telling Him about the picture you are still letting go of.
What is the scene in Ezra referenced in this episode?
When the foundation of the second temple was laid, older men who remembered the first temple wept out loud while everyone else shouted for joy, mixing the sounds of grief and celebration so completely that they could not be told apart.
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Taylor Beebe was adopted from Thailand as a baby
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and raised in the United States. For as long as she could
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remember, she'd wondered about the woman who gave birth to her.
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She'd built a picture of that reunion in her head and carried
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it for years. In college, she started looking. A name written
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on the back of an old photo led her to a Facebook page, and
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Holtz Records confirmed it. This was her birth mother. After 20
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years, she booked a flight to Thailand to finally meet her.
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The truth Taylor had pictured this moment her whole life. What
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she found in Thailand didn't match that picture. We'll come
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back to what she found, but
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welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm Bart Léger.
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When I first sensed God calling me to preach, I had a picture in
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my head of what that would be. Mostly, it was from a pulpit, me
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in front of people preaching eloquently and confidently. And
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God gave me that. Well, not so sure about the eloquently. But
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he also gave me the rest of it, which I hadn't pictured at all.
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I spend much of my week at a desk trying to write a sermon
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that won't always come together as quickly as I'd like. It's
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phone calls to check on people who are sick and driving across
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town to wait with the family sometimes. The call got answered.
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It came with about 40 hours a week of things nobody pictures
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when they picture preaching. And it took me a while to quit
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treating those hours like the part that didn't count. Maybe
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you prayed for something for years. The job, the restored
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relationship, and then it came. You should be You are, in part,
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but the answer didn't look like what you pictured. And there's
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something else mixed in with the gratitude that you weren't
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expecting to feel. You don't say anything because you don't want
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to sound ungrateful, or worse, like you're criticizing what God
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did. So you keep it to yourself. The psalmist had words for this
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in Psalm 126, 1. When the Lord brought back His exiles to
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Jerusalem, it was like a dream. Well, when we say, it was like a
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dream, we sometimes use it differently than the psalm does.
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We say, a dream come true, and we mean everything came to us
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the way we hoped. The Hebrew here means, like dreamers. The
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picture is of people who can't whether what's in front of them
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is real or not. Now, put that next to what the return from
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captivity was like in reality. A small group came back to a city
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in ruins. The walls were down. The temple was gone. It was the
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answer to 70 years of prayer, and it was not what anybody had
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pictured while they were praying for it. There's a scene in Ezra
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that I'm reminded of. When they laid the foundation of the
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second temple, the older men who had seen the first one wept out
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loud. Everybody else was shouting for joy. Ezra says the
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two sounds mixed together so completely that you couldn't
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tell them apart from a distance. Same day, same crowd. Some
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people were celebrating what God had done, and some were grieving
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what it wasn't. And the Holy Spirit saw fit to put both in
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the record without correcting either one. Then look at what
Track 1 00:03:06
Psalm 126 does with itself. Verses 2 and 3 are laughter and
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singing with the line that the Lord has done amazing things for
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us. The Psalm is glad, and it's good. then verse 4 turns right
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around and prays, restore our fortunes, Lord. They're still
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asking. The thing they prayed for came, and they're bringing
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God the part that's still unfinished. Four lines later in
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the same song. That's the whole permission you need. Scripture
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doesn't make the people choose between the thanks and the ache.
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It puts them side by side in one Psalm and never suggests. One
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cancels out the other. So do both this week. Thank God for
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the exact thing He gave you. Say what it was, the job you have,
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or the person who's talking to you again. Then tell Him about
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the picture you're still holding. Then tell Him, you're letting it
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go. That picture was real to you. You built it over the years of
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asking, and losing it is a loss, even though the thing you got is
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good. When Taylor stood in front of her birth mother in Krabi for
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the first time, it felt like a dream. And then the dream got
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complicated. She was physically at home in Thailand, in the
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country she came from, and emotionally she felt like a
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stranger to all of it.
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It brought, in her words, joy, grief, hope, sorrow, and love
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all at once. The reunion she'd prayed for came. It just came
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with more than she'd packed for. She got her mother back and
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grieved 20 years. She could never get back, both in the same
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breath. And she had to learn that both could be true at the
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same time. Both could be true. That's the lesson the people of
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the Temple Foundation were learning. And it's the one Psalm
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126 was written by somebody who'd already learned. Here's
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today's challenge. Write down the thing you prayed for and got.
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Then write two sentences under it. One starts with, thank you,
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for, and the other one starts with, what I pictured was. And
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then pray both of them this evening. Don't clean up the
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second one before you bring it to God. He already knows what
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you'd been picturing because He listened to you describe it for
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years. And give yourself some time. An answer you waited 20
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years for takes longer than a week to get used to. Father, You
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brought Your people home, and they said it was like a dream.
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And the men who remembered the old temple wept while everybody
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else shouted for joy. Thank you that you wrote both of those
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down. For everybody listening who got what they asked for and
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can't say what else came with it, give them the room to tell you.
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Let them thank you for the answer and grieve the picture in
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the same breath. In Jesus' name, amen. If this episode encouraged
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you today, would you share it with someone who might need to
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hear it? Just go to dailydevotionsforbusylives.com
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slash 351 and copy the link. It only takes a second, and it
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might make a difference in someone's day. Thanks for
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joining me on Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the
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weeping and the shouting were in the same crowd on the same day,
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and God wrote them both down. Bring in both. Come back next
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time for more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's
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truth. Until then, God bless, and have a great day.
