By What do you do when God says no?
As the heavens are higher than the earth,
Isaiah 55 verse 9
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Years ago Mike Long, the senior minister at my church, did a sermon about God answering prayers that really stuck with me. There are no unanswered prayers. God doesn’t have a massive prayer inbox in which your prayers get lost. He always answers our prayers: either with Yes, Not now or No. The reality is that sometimes we don’t like His answer.
We love it when the answer is ‘Yes’ and can tolerate when the answer is ‘Not now’. But how do you respond when the answer is ‘No’? Do you throw a tantrum like a child?
I know in the past I have. Or I get stuck whining ‘but why not’, instead of accepting and moving on. I’m not perfect by any stretch and falter when I really want the answer to be ‘yes’ and it isn’t, but I have grown up a little bit.
These two guiding statements have helped me when I’ve been stuck. I hope you’ll consider them if you’re stuck and can’t get over God saying ‘No’:
- God has his reasons and operates at a much grander scale than our minds can comprehend and
- Our prayers should be about ‘Thy will be done’ not ‘My will be done’
Recently I had a book club at my house to discuss the book ‘What happens when women pray’. We had a lively discussion on praying: how you need to be focused and disciplined in your approach. One of the takeaways from the book was that our prayers should not be about demands and answers but rather about requests – requests that always include the phrase ‘thy will be done’. Always. Because it isn’t about me and my needs. My relationship with God should not be transactional. It should be about supplication.
You have to push yourself past asking ‘why not’ and know that God has a plan in place, greater than you can imagine.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory. Amen.