Can You Trust His “No”?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesSo God doesn’t seem to be answering your persistent prayer. It just isn’t working out. Perhaps you are thinking …. is some special sin in my life that prevents His answer? Or perhaps God is just capricious. He is sitting on His big white throne passing judgments on who gets help and who doesn’t.
I also have doubts when I have prayed for a special answer and there is no answer. My fellow Christians try to comfort me, but can they really understand?
There are verses I read over and over again. You know them:
“If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:14); or “Give attention to the sound of my cry, my King and my God, for to you do I pray” (Psalm 5:2).
Life isn’t always fair and just. Just read the paper. Look at your own circumstances.
“But He (God) said to me, My grace (My favor and loving-kindness and mercy) is enough for you [sufficient against any danger and enables you to bear the trouble. For My strength and power are made perfect (fulfilled and completed) and show themselves most effective in [your] weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
No, your prayers and mine aren’t always answered in the positive. But it’s the negatives in life that bring us to depend on Him (Psalm 119:67,71).
If God doesn’t answer in the way we ask him to intervene, it is not a sign of His absence or of His indifference.
He knows our needs and we can trust Him, even when His answer to us is “No” (Philippians 4:19; Psalm 115:11; Proverbs 28:25; Proverbs 29:25).
—Barbara Hyland, guest writer