What do you do when you’re told no?
You hear the call, the need for help, and you want to get involved in a ministry? As far as you can tell, your heart is in the right place? And yet, God says no whether it be directly, or through others?
I get it, hearing this can be hard, as I have received such an answer a few times in my walk, in fact, I wanted to work back with the kids at my church on a more regular basis, but was told not yet, you’re not ready.
In this case, I knew the reason why and trusted the one who gave me the reasoning, but even still this was a hard pill to swallow. I somehow still managed to choke it down regardless.
Yet this opens the door to a broader question, what do you do when God says no in general?
Maybe your asking for healing of a loved one, or for yourself? Maybe you want or need a better job, maybe it is something else entirely, but God says no.
I am reminded of the seen in the first God is not dead movie toward the end, the teacher is lying on the ground about to die, and he makes a statement that I am rather sure a good number of people through the years have said
“God says no a lot, doesn’t he.”
So, what do we do when faced with this?
I am not going to pretend to you my friend that I have a full answer to this question. I know that at this moment, I have found myself praying, “God, I don’t want to sit on the sidelines, I want in the game, I want to do this or that.”
Yet I know what I have been told, that God has only good mint for believers “for I know the plans I have for you plans to prosper you not to harm you says the Lord.” Jerimiah 29:11
“for all things work together for the good of those who love God, and are the called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
In those scriptures we have something that seems so simple, God has good planned, and specifically, in the Romans passage, we are told that even the things that don’t seem so good, work for the good of the believer.
However, let’s get real, can we take that to the bank? Is God telling us the truth in that, does his plans for us work out for good, even if they mean he has to say no, like a parent of a child who wants a cookie before dinner?
Or is God as some believe, a cosmic dictator?
I will not post the answer to that question here but will leave that for you to decide.
Can you think of any other reason God might say no, and furthermore, can you in your experience what you have done to cope with that answer, even if it was something you did not want to hear?
Please post your responses in the comment box, and I look forward to hearing from you.
In Christ, Teresa Blaes.
