When God Says No

When we were children, we never liked hearing the word 'No' when we ask our parents for something. We felt as though our every wish should be granted. If you say otherwise, we can pray later.

Frankly, as adults, we feel the same way. We do not like to be told no in regards to something we have ask - especially when we ask God for something. The fact is though, sometimes God outright replies to us with a 'No'.

We often view these as unanswered prayers when in fact, they are very much answered, just not how we would prefer them to be.

On more than one occasion, I have ask God for something and He firmly responded with a No.

I want you to realize that when God responds with a No, it isn't because He does not love you, doesn't want to give you something you desire, doesn't care about you or wants to see you go through difficult times. We must understand that God always knows what is best and longs to reveal that to us at all points in our lives.

As we view these verses, we see a time when God essentially replied to Paul with a 'No'.

I. God Tells us 'No' to reveal His strength to us

As we see with Paul, God reminded him that even though He had something really bothering him - something he was truly struggling with (there are many ideas behind what this may have been but the what is not really important; what is is that it was a struggle for Paul) so much so that three times, He ask God to remove it. God simply replied, in essence with a "No, I'm going to show you my Grace will carry you through and show you my strength is perfect during your weak times".

Because of His reply, Paul just leaned more heavily upon God. Never again is his struggle mentioned in his letters. What we see is that Paul was able, even with a 'No' reply, to take his eyes off of the situation and trust God and allow His strength to carry him through.

We must do the same. If God always said yes to us, we would never go through a trial that is aimed to grow us spiritually. We would never have those growing pains in Christ. Instead, at the first moment of difficulty, we would ask God to remove the problem and if He always said yes, we would not know how to trust His strength to carry us through those moments.

II. God Tells us 'No' so we appreciate the Yes replies

I know we have all encountered a child who is extremely spoiled because they are always getting anything they want. We know how "delightful" those children can be...They fail to appreciate things because they are accustomed to always getting what they want.

As God's children, if we aren't careful, we will become the same way in our spiritual lives. Sometimes, God has to tell us no so we really appreciate the times that God tells us yes. We can then genuinely enjoy and appreciate the goodness and blessings of God because we know it is a time when He chose to say 'Yes' to our request.

III. So What if God says No

Romans 8:28 - Everything works out for us ultimately anyhow. God knows what is best for us.

Philippians 4:11-13

Hebrews 11:40 - God has better things waiting for us. Ultimately, the best promise is found in John 14:1-3