When God Says No

God has an appropriate and wise answer for every prayer. Sometimes that answer is no. That was the case for the Apostle Paul when he pleaded with the Lord to remove the thorn in his flesh. Paul recounts the story in 2 Corinthians 12:8-9,

8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Sometimes when we pray God chooses to say no. In God’s providence and divine wisdom, sometimes God deems it best that He should walk us through the storm rather than calm the storm. There are times when God desires to perfect His power in us instead of showing His power at work around us. When God says no, He is wanting to build strength, dependence, and humility in us. If doesn’t seem like God is working on your outside situation at the moment it might be because He is trying to work on your inside. Here are six thoughts that can be help our faith when God says no.

1. God is working out things for our good in the midst of our problems.
2. God allows us to endure hardship but never without purpose or outside of His divine plan.
3. God has a different value system than we do at times. He values growth over comfort.
4. God is always able to meet our needs, and we should always trust He knows what He’s doing.
5. An awareness of your own weakness increases your capacity to experience God’s strength.
6. You can choose to be glad in hardship because God is using it to strengthen you.

As I look back on my life and the prayers that I have prayed, I am thankful that God, in His wisdom, loved me enough to tell me no. I may not have always understood what God was up to at first, but I could learn more and more to put my faith in His character and nature. He is a God that is real, that loves us, and knows what’s best. Now, that’s something that comforts my soul, even when God says no.

Focus

We have been talking in Sunday school class about keeping our focus intact with God as the center of our lives. We have looked back in biblical times when people were blessed and had their focus for awhile only to drift away from God. They leaned on and started worshiping idols or things that were not of God. Then as a people they were taken in captivity by nations that didn’t fear God. This happened several times. They were rescued by repenting and regaining their focus on God.

So, I was thinking, anything that causes us to lose our focus on God will eventually take us captive. The reminder of scripture is to stay focused and if you lose your focus, repent from the heart and make it right with God. We have seen people get wrapped up in things that aren’t bad in the right perspective, but they start to take over our lives and we have little time for God. Once we let things crowd God out of our lives that opens the door for worse things to creep in and all of a sudden, we are in captivity to sin. This happened in generations before Jesus and is still happening today.

When I was a young Christian, I used to wonder if could measure up to the Christian life standard. Temptation was around every corner. So, I studied and talked to Christians and ministers to find some answers. I found that I needed a consistent prayer life, regular engagement in scripture, and active participation in Christian community. There are also acts of gratitude, intentionally focusing on God’s presence through our daily life to worship and fellowship, and seeking God’s will.

Then I came upon looking at the New Testament Covenant or simply called the New Covenant. It is a promise between God and humanity. The New Covenant is about a new relationship where God promises forgiveness and a new way of life through Jesus. We can have a personal relationship with Him. His Holy Spirit can lead us if we are willing to let Him. As I said, there are times when I thought it was impossible to live up to a righteous Christian life because we are weak and temptation is everywhere. Well, I was right. I couldn’t do it in my own power. However, we have a friend that can help us, lead us, guide us, and we can have a personal relationship with Him. We don’t have to have anyone intercede for us, even though they may help us. We can talk to Jesus ourselves. He promised this to us in the New Covenant. We don’t have to know everything and don’t have to be perfect. We need to put our faith in God, love Him, trust Him, obey Him, and have a repentant heart when we fail. He promised we can have a new life if we follow Jesus. His Holy Spirit will guide us along our journey.

Romans 8:9 defines a Christian as anyone who has the Spirit of God living in them. If you have sincerely trusted Christ for salvation and acknowledge Him as Lord, then the Holy Spirit has come into your life. You are a Christian. It is a process of depending on the Holy Spirit to guide us through rough times while keeping open communication with God. We can’t do it in our own power. We need the Holy Spirit’s power to lift us and be with us along the way.

STAY FOCUSED ON GOD!

The Importance of Praise

Praise is a lot more than getting worked up in singing a praise song. Praise invites God’s presence; our spirit is refreshed and renewed. God dwells close to us when we praise Him, and we are strengthened by His peace. Praise facilitates access to God. Obviously, it’s the blood of Jesus that paves the way for our forgiveness from sin and our relationship with God.

Psalms 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord”. That being said, our perpetual continuous praise provides a clear and unhindered passage to God. God’s presence is especially intense in an atmosphere of praise. Praise is how to make prayer more effective. A quote from a commentary, “When we praise, productivity is maximized, fulfillment is realized, and frustration is neutralized.”

There is no better way to beat the blues than to change our focus from self to God. Isaiah 6:13 says such a shift produces the oil of gladness against the devil. God is worthy of our praise. Praise will get our focus where it needs to be…on God. If we start praising God in the middle of our problems, our problems seem to shrink so much that we may hardly remember to bring them to God.

Praying is to create an intimate space between you and the Lord, allowing Him to speak directly to your heart in such a way you are drawn to Him. Praise opens the way for God’s blessings over our lives. When we praise God, God knows that we are turning our attention fully to Him. He knows that we are mustering up trust that He is the answer, plus, we are starting to push back and throw off feelings of being hopelessly defeated.

Praising God will increase our faith. As we spend time praising God, we can recount the great things He has done in our life, which builds our faith. Praise is a means of entrance with boldness into God’s presence and the Psalms says that the Lord inhabits, or is enthroned in, the praise of His people. Praise invites our entrance into His presence. It is the welcome of His throne into our circumstances.

So, praise is a very important part of our worship and prayer life. Maybe when praying, we should start off by praising our God instead of going right in asking God to do what we are praying for. We have a wonderful God to praise.

Today is a New Day for Everyone

Have you ever thought about what “a new day” really means?  To some it means just another day with the same routine, to others it may mean a new opportunity to work hard and advance themselves, and still to others it may just be a continuation of the previous day with all the mistakes, anger, and resentment.  But what is “new” actually supposed to be?  I believe a new day is a completely blank slate, for everyone, not just for me.

The Bible states in Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”  Why does God want us to rejoice in each new day if let’s say maybe it starts off badly, or maybe anger and resentment from the day before is still with us, or possibly we continue to dwell and think about our mistakes from the past, or we hold a grudge against someone who hurt us?  Could it be that we are to rejoice because the day is a clean blank slate?  A blank slate for everyone, basically a do over.

A new day gives us the chance to be a better person in our actions, a kinder person to those around us, and most importantly a new day gives us the opportunity to listen to God and His instruction better than the day before. A new day also means that it won’t be the same as the previous day. In Isaiah 43:19 God says “Behold, I am doing a new thing.”  That verse is talking about the coming of Jesus Christ as our salvation, but could it also be describing what each day actually should be?

If so, how should that affect our perspective?  The amazing thing is that all of the people that may have hurt us, said cruel things to us, or did cruel things to us also get the same “new day”.  A new day for things to be different.  We should allow everyone their new day and not condemn them to being the same person in our minds that they were the day before.  Everyone starts out with a clean slate, everyone.

God’s mercies are new every day and ours should be too.