Don't give up

This is something that I myself have been learning and also observing in others around me.

Why is it that often whenever we make a vow/promise to God or whenever we find ourselves in a situation where we assume that God wants us to "learn a lesson in _____", deep down, we come up with these following lines of thinking:

"If we learn (insert lesson here...e.g. contentment, patience, self-control, etc.), maybe God will..."
or "If I make this vow/promise to God, maybe after the vow is over, God will..."

That line of thought is so wrong! Forgive me if my language is a bit extreme and harsh. I'm included in this group as well....but anyways, it's bordering on bargaining with/bribing God, expecting Him to do as we want if we do what He wants.
And many people call that kind of thought process as optimistic. I hear Christians say this a lot when they find themselves in a season that they don't like (I catch myself thinking like this a lot as well and I've also tried to use it as encouragement to others in the past!! You can bet I don't do that anymore...): "Maybe God is teaching me a lesson in contentment and perseverance, and once I've gotten to that point, then maybe God will lead me out of this season". You've heard so many testimonies of people who once they learned to be content in their singleness (for example), God introduced them to their husband. Of course, it COULD happen. I'm not saying God is incapable of that.
What I do want to say in response to that is, "Well what if He doesn't? What if God doesn't do that? What if He doesn't lead you out of the wilderness for another 40 years? What then? Will you still love Him and cherish Him? Will He still be your God? Will you still follow Him?"

To me, what I hear other people saying is NOT optimistic thinking. It's not realistic and it actually totally misses the REAL hope that we have in Christ. You can see where that kind of thinking leads. What kind of fruit that kind of thinking bears if it doesn't come true. Disappointment. Dead end. Loss of trust in God, etc.
So what now? If we can't think that way, then we seemingly can't think of any other reason for why God is closing all other doors. So we give up. Not just on our dreams/desires/hopes, but also on God: "If He's not going to start leading me out now, then He won't ever lead me out."

But there's one thing that God's been leading me back to recently, and growing this in me. We don't give up. Christians don't give up. We don't give up on our desires/dreams/hopes BECAUSE we don't give up on God. Those things are interconnected. If we give up on our hopes/dreams/desires (that God has instilled in us since birth), then we have given up on God. It's that simple. My God is good. Faithful. Trustworthy. And most importantly, He is Love. I don't have to do anything just to get him to fulfill my desires in return. Firstly, I don't have the power to make God do anything but secondly (and most importantly), isn't it silly to bargain with our Father to get our Heavenly Father to love us? Cause, in essence, that is what we are doing! If He truly loved us, He would make sure we lack nothing good. I don't have to ask and I sure as heck don't have to bargain and bribe Him to do that! There's no harm in telling Him what we want of course but then we have to trust that He is who He claims to be.

Why start making conditional statements like, "IF I do this, THEN God..." That completely misses the point on who God is. God will do whatever He wants to do. Regardless. But REST assured. Have hope. Have joy. Have peace...that it will be in your best interest and that ultimately, you wouldn't have wanted it any other way.