When God Says No

When God Says No
Are there areas of your life where you want something very badly, but God has not allowed that thing to occur? We all have things in our past and present that we wish we could change. We wish the results of certain decisions we made could be removed from us, or wish that God would just change our current situation. We pray and we ask God for something we don’t have, and nothing happens. We ask Him to heal us or someone we love, but the ailment remains or the person dies.
There are a lot of reasons why God may say no, and we will briefly go over some of those, but the point of this sermon is not why God says no. This message is about how we react to God saying no.
My spiritual father once told me that sometimes he will tell a minister he is training “no” just to see how he will react. I found that interesting, informative, and honestly, as one of his trainees, a little scary! He was actually watching me to see how I acted when things didn’t go my way. And the thought hit me: What if God is doing the same thing to me at times?
Now there are good reasons why God may say no:
1. Sin in our lives.
Confess and repent!
The psalmist wrote, “If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened” (Ps. 66:18). Not that God is unable to hear, for He is omniscient, but that He maintains His distance when we allow sin to be a wall between us.
Major disobedience sets us up for long-term unanswered prayer: When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (l Sam. 8:18)
2. To say yes would bring us harm we don’t foresee.
B.M. Palmer in Theology of Prayer, tells of a woman who had spent the summer away from her children, and was quite anxious to get back to them. When she learned that all the rooms on a certain steamer were taken, she wept bitterly. Because she couldn’t get a passage on any other ship, she was detained two weeks in NYC. But the sorrow of being delayed was turned into thanksgiving when, within a few days, she learned that the vessel that denied her passage was buried at the bottom of the Atlantic. She didn’t see the “no” as a wonderful answer to prayer until the whole story unfolded.
3. God has something far greater in store for us.
Mary and Martha wanted Jesus to heal Lazarus, but He had resurrection in mind.
Maybe you go into the hospital for a sickness but they find something worse and previously undetected while you are there and save your life.
4. We pray for things where a “yes” is impossible.
• That a child be found alive when they’ve been murdered.
• We pray for lost things that are not found.
5. We pray for something that interferes with God’s plans for someone else.
A carpenter was building some crates for the clothes his church was sending to an orphanage in China. On his way home, he reached into his shirt pocket to find his glasses, but they were gone. He remembered putting them there that morning, so he drove back to the church. His search proved fruitless. When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he realized what happened. The glasses had slipped out of his pocket unnoticed and fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed shut. His brand new glasses were heading for China!
The Great Depression was at its height, and the man had six children. He had spent twenty dollars for those glasses that very morning. “It’s not fair,” he told God as he drove home in frustration. “I’ve been very faithful in giving of my time and money to your work, and now this.”
Several months later, the director of the orphanage was on furlough in the United States. He wanted to visit all the churches that supported him in China, so he came to speak one Sunday night at this small church in Chicago. The carpenter and his family sat in their customary seats among the sparse congregation.
The missionary began by thanking the people for their faithfulness in supporting the orphanage.
“But most of all,” he said, “I must thank you for the glasses you sent last year. You see, the Communists had just swept through the orphanage, destroying everything, including my glasses. I was desperate.
“Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of replacing those glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I experienced headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much in prayer about this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff removed the covers, they found a pair of glasses lying on top.”
The missionary paused long enough to let his words sink in. Then, still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued: “Folks, when I tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been custom-made just for me! I want to thank you for being a part of that.”
The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses. But the missionary surely must have confused their church with another, they thought. There were no glasses on their list of items to be sent overseas.
But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming down his face, an ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had used him in an extraordinary way.
6. We pray for things that are already determined.
• Praying for a boy or girl that’s already been conceived.
• Praying for the salvation of someone who’s already dead.
7. We get discouraged in prayer by thinking God has said no when in fact He’s said nothing at all.
“Wait” is an answer. Delay is not denial.
God often delays His answer to cultivate patience and persistence, and build our faith.
Or to bring our will around to conform to His own.
Abraham and Sarah
A loving God is in control!

8. God’s “No” is not rejection, but redirection
Close a door—open a window? No!
God’s “no” to one thing is a “yes” to another.
2 Sam 7 – God said “no” to David’s desire to build a temple. David’s history of bloodshed made God take that privilege away from him and gave it to Solomon.
9. God’s “no” isn’t punishment, it’s preparation
Rom 5:2a-5 – “And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”
God is preparing us to be His Son’s bride. We will reign with Him; we must be made into a bride worthy of our position. He develops perseverance, character, and hope as we trust Him in prayer. Prayer and spiritual warfare is His means of preparing us for bridehood.
10. God’s “No” will sometimes bring greater glory to God.
Focus on the Family : A pastor’s throat/voice was healed while being recorded. The tape was aired on Focus; he has now written a book.
You must believe that “the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way” (Ps. 37:23). The Hebrew word for ordered implies that you are being set up with every step you take. This setup is, of course, contingent upon you seeking the will of God and praying, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10).
Sometimes, there is no answer for us this side of heaven. One of the best Scripture passages to explain all these negative things that happen to good people was written by Solomon in Ecclesiastes 9:11-12:
“Under the sun … the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all. For man also does not know his time.”
“Time” and “chance” happen to us all. The word chance here is not “luck.” It is the Hebrew word pega and means, “impact, or something that has an impact.”
Life-changing events that have an impact upon us for good or bad happen to all of us. Jesus said it well when He taught that God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45).
But the question that should concern us more than why is what do i do now? where do i go from here? People respond to no in different ways, and the response will reflect how much faith you truly have in God’s goodness, despite what good or bad He allows to befall us, and our measure of maturity and self-control. Surviving no means having all 3 of those characteristics.
How does a baby or toddler handle no? How many adults scream and cry when they don’t get what they want when they want it?
What about those that pout, have a bad, resentful attitude? Look at Jonah, who had to tell the Ninevites to repent so they could be saved. After they were saved, he got depressed and wanted to die, and literally sat down and refused to go anywhere and asked God to just kill him now.
What about those that complain to others about it? How about the Israelites, who grumbled and complained over and over again about food and drink and spices, ready to go back to slavery because they couldn’t have what they want. They were banished to die in the desert.
What about those who try to manipulate the circumstances or people around them to get what God has said no to? The Israelites had some of their members rise up in rebellion against Moses. They were swallowed up in the ground.
So what is the proper response to God saying no?
When David had sex with Bathsheba and killed her husband to cover it up, God let the baby die. David prayedfor God to let the child live, but when the child died, he went back to serving amdworshipping God. He didnt walk away, even though for the rest of his life he would have to live with many sad consequences of his actions.
When Paul talked about his thorn in the flesh, this was his response: 2 Cor 12 says
Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 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. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
He surrendered to God’s will in faith and kept serving Him.
God looks at our conduct and our actions based on our level of faith. He cannot entrust us with anythimg important for His kingdomif we cannot be trusted to obey Him when things don’t go our way. we cant see the end from the beginning like God can. Annd we are living for His will and kingdom to be done on earth, not our own. We must be found to be faithful servants, good stewards of whatever God has entrusted us with, which includes how we handle our circumstances every day.