Sometimes God says no

We sing songs of how God hears our prayers and always answer’s them. It can be hard to take when he says no. How does he say no? By not giving us what we deserve, by knowing what is better for us than we do. When you think about it, he saves us from a world of heartache, when the answer is no. We stand praying on scriptures and believing and knowing, our answer will soon be forth coming. But, sometimes it is a simple no. There are times, when the “no” brings no explanation along with it. We bring problems into the situation when we try to read more into the reason why we got the no in the first place. There will always be “Job‘s friends” who will tell you, “your faith wasn’t strong enough, or you just didn’t believe” and in some cases, we know this was true. Have you ever noticed how we categorize our beliefs? For example; we know it is easy to believe we will receive our pay after a full weeks work, because if all goes well, our paycheck will be waiting for us, just like clock work, like it has the whole time you have been employed there. but what about believing to spend some extra money, out of that very pay check to support an aids child overseas?
David’s faith was apparent in so many ways and one of those times was, when he went into fasting, praying and interceding for his sick baby, to be healed and not die. But, on the seventh day, the baby died. God said no. His faith was such, that he cleaned himself up, knowing there wasn’t anything else he could do and said “And he said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now, he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.” 2Sa.16-23. Then, he got on with his life, in such a way that his servants were amazed, because of his acceptance of the word, “no.”
Truthfully, we do not always know why God says no to us. We examine our hearts and confess our sins and ask God to forgive us and the no word still comes along. We ask ourselves, why? How can this be, when we know what the Word says. “By his stripes we are healed.” Is. 53:5 Then, our loved one dies anyway. And, “these signs shall follow them, who believe, they shall lay hands on the sick and shall be healed.” Mk. 16:18
Faithful Christians have been perplexed a time or two when seemingly our prayers haven’t been answered. The fact is; God really does say no. It doesn’t have anything to do with your faith or faithfulness, or the way you have put your faith in him. He sees it all. The Bible says , we have not, because we ask not. It also says we “ask amiss,” many times. Search your heart and ask yourself what you’ve been praying for, and would it really bring glory to God if you had it? I ask you, does a brand new BMW bring glory to God? Does God need that to look good? Do you? I don’t think so. The western church hasn’t gone through any tribulation and many have become materially minded instead of love minded. We’ve managed to make rock solid cases to justify how important things are in our lives. Instead of counting our blessings for what God has given to us, we are always striving for more. More notoriety, power, more money, more jobs, bigger house with larger closets, a bigger car with a larger garage. Yet, the Bible tells us to be content with what we have. Naturally, as your family increases; there are times, when you outgrow your home and need a larger one.
Cannot our earthly father be compared to our heavenly father a little bit? What kind of father would we have if he gave us every single thing we would want? We would be as spoiled children always expecting more. If this would stop suddenly, we would throw a temper tantrum and demand our own way, because we have been literally trained that we can have our own way. As the children grow, they would continue to expect their father to give them everything all of the time, so why become independent and work? If by chance some do make their way into the work force, after college, many have problems with authority because, they quickly discover, in the work place, they will not be able to have their own way. This can be a difficult adjustment to spoiled adults and in order for them to adapt, they will have to come to the realization, that they will have to do things their employer‘s way and not theirs.
Sometimes, a “no” comes along because we haven’t listened to God. We do not hear what he is saying or we do not want to hear. We sometimes choose not to hear that small whisper in our ears that says “do you really need that, or should you be spending that amount of money at this time?” God is always talking to us, we just choose not to hear Him. We’d rather go along having things our way. It is only when we discover that when we do this, we mess up our lives so easily without following His guidance. At this time we find out how good the word “no” can really be for us.
Our eyes are opened and we begin to follow through on the no’s and our life finally gets on the upswing; because we chose to listen and obey. We finally discovered that it is ok for God to say no. It just isn’t good for us to say it to Him.