Taking God Off Trial

Tonight I went back and re-read several of these blogs, hoping to find reasons once again to fully take up this prayer. As I read several of the ones where God so plainly showed His hand to be on this request, I grew quite frustrated with my lack of understanding. I grew frustrated with such clear evidence that this was what God wanted from me, yet He didn't answer. I begged God for an answer, an indication, a light, a glimmer of what He wanted and I was met with silence. In anger, I asked God why He was being so silent and the Holy Spirit very clearly said that He wasn't being silent, I was no longer talking to Him in a way that He could answer back.
     Quite honestly, that stunned me. He was right. This past week, I have prayed at Him not to Him. My prayers have been such short ones, He never had a chance to respond. He very plainly said that if I wanted to hear Him, I needed to take Him off trial and give Him a chance to speak. I needed to stop accusing Him of not coming through on His promises. I needed to quit using, "I'm hurt" as an excuse to not trust Him. He did nothing wrong here, He simply didn't answer when I wanted Him too.
     So tonight, I recommitted this prayer to God. I took Him off trial and asked Him once again to hear this prayer and to begin once again to move and work in the lives of all involved. I renewed my commitment to pray every day both for this request and for Tebow himself. It is time to get serious again. God told me to ask Him for this, to not continue on would be deliberate disobedience. God has promised time and again he will answer this if I fulfill my end of the covenant, it's time to begin fulfilling that once again. One of my students once shared something he learned at a youth conference...God doesn't need our permission to send trials into our lives, but He does need our permission to send blessings into them. Tonight, I asked God to begin blessing this request again, to once more work on behalf of it. Oddly, I found myself praying the same thing I did way back in January. "God, let me have a better understanding of Who You are as I undertake this journey. God deepen my knowledge of You and help me to build a better and stronger relationship with You as we go through this." Despite every other thing God has done and shown through this journey, despite all the reasons He has added to this command, that request was the original reason God asked me to take this on...to know Him and tonight as I renew this commitment, I renew that desire as well.
     When I first began praying for this, Stephanie asked me for a time frame to pray God answered in. At the time, I really felt God wanted me to ask that this be fulfilled by the end of school. Tonight, I think perhaps the timing may should have been while they were still my spiritual obligation...I thought this to mean while they were still my homeroom. While they aren't technically juniors yet and technically still my homeroom, God has yet to let them meet Tebow, so they are still my spiritual obligation. It is still my responsibility to guide them through to the fulfillment He has promised them (something else I recommitted to tonight as well). I am now praying that God will allow them to meet Tebow before they officially become juniors on our first day of school.
     The circumstances surrounding the prayer have definitely changed, but the God behind the command and the promises has definitely not. His Word is still His Word and His promises are still His promises. These kids will, some day and in some incredible way, meet Tim Tebow.