When God Says No

I read a story recently about a young girl who wrote a letter to a missionary to let him know that her Bible class had been praying for him. But evidently, she had been told not to request an answer to her letter because the missionaries were very busy. So the missionary got a good laugh from her letter. It said, “Dear Mr. Missionary, we are praying for you. But we are not expecting an answer.”

I can't help but think that this little girl summarized the prayer lives of many Christians. Sometimes we pray without expecting an answer, even though God has assured us that He does indeed hear all our prayers. David said, “I love the Lord, because He has heard my voice and my supplications” (Psalm 116:1). I think many of us struggle with the irritating question, “Is God really listening to me?” We think, “Yes, He heard David, He heard Elijah, He heard the apostles, but does He hear me?”

How do we really know that our prayers are answered? Sure, there are times when we see obvious results. We may pray for someone who is sick and the next week they get well. However, more often, our prayers don't produce spectacular instant answers. We pray for help in financial problems, but don't see things get any better. We pray for guidance in making right decisions, but the decisions don't get any easier. We pray for our relationships with other people to improve, but they just seem to get worse. How do we as Christians account for that happening? How do we explain the fact that so many of our prayers seem to go unanswered?

The truth is, for a child of God, there is no such thing as an unanswered prayer. Maybe you've heard it said before that God answers prayer in three ways. Sometimes the answer is “yes.” Sometimes “no,” and sometimes “wait.” It's easy to accept an answer of “yes,” but what about when God says, “no” or “wait?”

Let me suggest three principles:

First, we need to trust God enough to realize that our All-loving, All-powerful, All-wise Father loves us and has our best interest at heart. Therefore, when it appears that God says “no” to our prayers, we must trust Him enough to understand that there must be a very good reason for it. It may be beyond our limited ability to understand, but we must simply and completely trust God.

Second, we must not forsake God. Disappointment is a dangerous and powerful thing. When we get the feeling that God isn't listening to us, or has said “no” to one of our prayers, we have a tendency to feel disappointed in Him. In addition, Satan whispers to us, “God says He loves you, but He's not here.” If we allow that disappointment to take root in our hearts, it can drive a wedge between us and God. We must continue to be faithful to our responsibility before God.

Third, we need to realize that the answer may not be “no,” but only “wait.” God always hears our prayers immediately, but sometimes a delay in giving an answer can be a difficult thing for us to accept. The ability to wait for His answer is one of the marks of maturity. Be willing to let God answer in His own time, in His own way, and by His own power.

Many people see God as a divine vending machine in which you deposit one prayer and out pops a blessing. But what happens when you put your money in a vending machine and nothing comes out? You may get angry and kick the machine, because you feel cheated. So it's not really surprising that having such a view of God and prayer leads to disappointment in God when the answer is “no!”

We need to cultivate an entirely different view of prayer from that one. Our God is the Great God of the Universe, the Creator of all things that exist other than Himself. For us to even venture to speak to Him seems almost presumptuous. For us to ask Him to pay attention to our requests and then hope for Him to meet them requires our bold expectations. In fact, such would be total arrogance if it were not for the simple fact that God tells us to do just that.

Looking from the proper perspective, we will not ask, “What happens when God says no?” but rather “What happens when God says yes?” That the God of the heavens would listen to us and our needs is a great testimony to His great love for us. And it is that love that will lead Him to say “no” from time to time. At those times, we must trust Him knowing that He loves us and desires what is best for us. We must never forsake Him or lose our faith in Him. We must realize that what we interpret to be an answer of “no” may just be God telling us “have patience, and wait a while.”

“This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (I John 5:14).

From The Berean News