When God Says "No"
When God says no to our prayers, what is our response?
Paul the Apostle had experienced a first hand visit to heaven. God had done a wonderful thing for him and to him. The Corinthians needed to hear about this since they doubted Paul's authority and Apostleship in the first place. A vision of heaven would certainly impress this crowd in love with the spectacular and supernatural...
But something happened after that visit. Paul recounts the story:
2 Corinthians 12:7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul prayed and God said "no."
Why?
First. God says "no" because God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. Did you see Paul's reasoning? "So to keep me from becoming conceited"... Paul had been a conceited Pharisee in the enemy's service. That was his past, and God wasn't about to let Paul go back to that!
God is not interested in you getting everything you want all the time. God is interested in you become what He wants for all time! He sees what you need to be, not what you want to have.
Second, God knows you better than you know yourself. Read Psalm 139...
Psalm 139:1–4 (ESV) O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
God knows exactly when to say "no" to what you want! You can fight it, you can argue, you can dismiss it, but there's no doubting, God knows what is best for you right here and now.
My wife and I watched a movie once about a woman who seemed to put her faith in Christ after her child was saved in a horrible accident. Then, when the passion had dried up in her marriage, and her friend got a debilitating brain tumor, she slowly and eventually walked away from faith altogether. What the movie doesn’t show you is the real woman left her husband and children to move to France and is now Agnostic. I watched the credits roll and the thought hit me... She never committed to God, she just wanted God committed to her.
Third, God doesn't actually say "no" to Paul here... Instead, God says, "Here's what I do have for you, Paul. It's called Grace. My grace is enough." I wondered why Paul stopped at three prayers? I think it is because he remembers how many times Christ went back to the garden to pray that the cup of suffering and death might be taken from Him. Yet without the cross, there is no power in resurrection, there is not defeated death!
God's no in one place ultimately leads to His "yes" in another. Maybe it's time to let go of that plan you thought was perfect and look up. I know of people who never see the opportunities before them because they are still obsession about the "missed" ones behind them. God's grace is daily. It's for today. And there's a new day of grace for you to lift your eyes and see what He's doing in your life TODAY. Forget yesterday.
PRAYER:
Father thank you for what I have and where I am. You have answered so many of my prayers. I have no way to complain. Thank you also for the "no"s in life. Thank you for help ing me come to terms with something I need to see rather than something I'm obsessed to have. I pray for a wide open heart to receive with gladness what You chose to give me! Thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen.
Paul the Apostle had experienced a first hand visit to heaven. God had done a wonderful thing for him and to him. The Corinthians needed to hear about this since they doubted Paul's authority and Apostleship in the first place. A vision of heaven would certainly impress this crowd in love with the spectacular and supernatural...
But something happened after that visit. Paul recounts the story:
2 Corinthians 12:7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul prayed and God said "no."
Why?
First. God says "no" because God is more concerned with our character than our comfort. Did you see Paul's reasoning? "So to keep me from becoming conceited"... Paul had been a conceited Pharisee in the enemy's service. That was his past, and God wasn't about to let Paul go back to that!
God is not interested in you getting everything you want all the time. God is interested in you become what He wants for all time! He sees what you need to be, not what you want to have.
Second, God knows you better than you know yourself. Read Psalm 139...
Psalm 139:1–4 (ESV) O Lord, you have searched me and known me! 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. 3 You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
God knows exactly when to say "no" to what you want! You can fight it, you can argue, you can dismiss it, but there's no doubting, God knows what is best for you right here and now.
My wife and I watched a movie once about a woman who seemed to put her faith in Christ after her child was saved in a horrible accident. Then, when the passion had dried up in her marriage, and her friend got a debilitating brain tumor, she slowly and eventually walked away from faith altogether. What the movie doesn’t show you is the real woman left her husband and children to move to France and is now Agnostic. I watched the credits roll and the thought hit me... She never committed to God, she just wanted God committed to her.
God's no in one place ultimately leads to His "yes" in another. Maybe it's time to let go of that plan you thought was perfect and look up. I know of people who never see the opportunities before them because they are still obsession about the "missed" ones behind them. God's grace is daily. It's for today. And there's a new day of grace for you to lift your eyes and see what He's doing in your life TODAY. Forget yesterday.
PRAYER:
Father thank you for what I have and where I am. You have answered so many of my prayers. I have no way to complain. Thank you also for the "no"s in life. Thank you for help ing me come to terms with something I need to see rather than something I'm obsessed to have. I pray for a wide open heart to receive with gladness what You chose to give me! Thank you, in Jesus' name. Amen.
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