When God Says, "No!"

             In last Friday’s post, I talked about the prayers that God answers.  When we walk in obedience to Him, striving to please Him, and seeking His will, not our own, He will answer.  However, as I said then, the answers may not always be what we wanted or expected.

            So, how should we respond when we have done our best to be obedient, seeking His will, and our loved ones still aren’t healed, or our marriage still falls apart, or our wayward child does not return, or …., the list could go on and on?  In our minds, those requests are all for good things that appear to be well within His will, yet His answer still appears to be, “No!” Why? There may be several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that His ways are “higher than your ways and [His] thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9b NIV84).  We simply don’t have the capacity to understand the mind of God, nor do we know the future as God knows it.

            Paul makes this clear in II Corinthians 12.  Paul had a problem, what he called “a thorn in the flesh.”  No one knows for sure what the problem was.  Speculation includes poor eyesight, a speech impediment, or a malingering illness.  Regardless of the issue, it was something so troubling that he prayed three times for it to be removed. From all we know about Paul, it appears that he prayed in accordance with the directions God has outlined for us, but three times God said, “No!” Why?

Here’s how God responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12:9a NIV84). So, how did Paul respond to God? “Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.... For when I am weak, then I am strong” (II Corinthians 12:9b,10b NIV84). Paul found renewed purpose and strength in God’s answer.  It no longer mattered that God had said, “No!”

            Instead of berating God when our prayers are not answered as we would like, perhaps we need to take a page out of Paul’s playbook.  Start by looking for ways that God may be glorified through your response to your situation.  God often works in ways that we call “mysterious” because we don’t understand them.  It may be months or even years before we see how God worked through that difficult situation for our good.  In some instances, we may not see it this side of heaven.  It is in those times that we must trust Him and His ways, recognizing that His ways are always best.

II Corinthians 12:7 – 10

Jeremiah 29:11

Romans 8:28

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