When God Says No

I prayed, “Lord, please save my marriage,” and I believed He would. It was just a few months after we adopted our youngest child. Surely He wouldn’t have allowed us to adopt this baby just to watch our marriage burn to the ground. What would that do to the name of Christ? What would that do to our kids? It just didn’t make sense.

But I ask you, “Since when does God make sense?” Remember Noah building that big boat on dry land? And David, that scrawny shepherd boy, pummeling Goliath? And the Israelites marching around and around and around Jericho? And what about good ol’ Joseph being sold by his very brothers into slavery? Did any of this make sense? Think about it. And if you’re still not convinced, look at Calvary. Not one person on the face of the earth understood what was happening. Not one of the disciples. Not Jesus’ mother. Not Jesus’ father. Not his best friends. No, the death of the Son of God didn’t make sense to a single human soul. But it made total sense to God. And boy was it ever good!

It’s taken me a long time to get to this place. I’m not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I think I’m beginning to understand that all He does, makes complete and total sense to Him and it is all so very good. I know it doesn’t seem so at the time. It never does. But look at each and every event in the Scriptures. In the end things weren’t just okay for God’s people. They were really, really good. God’s people didn’t just survive. They thrived.

• That whole oversized boat thing didn’t seem like such a brilliant idea at the time, but it was.
• Really, David, you’re going to battle against Goliath with a stick and some stones? Bad idea. Or was it?
• You Israelites are crazy making yourselves dizzy prancing around in circles. That doesn’t sound like much of a battle plan to me. But it was.
• And Joseph…what a guy! In the end, was he sorry he had been sold into slavery? Not at all. He didn’t complain because He knew the truth: “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”
• And then there’s Jesus. Was the cross really such a horrible idea after all?

Psalm 22:5 says, “To you they cried out and were delivered; In you they trusted and were not disappointed.”

Sometimes life’s circumstances are disappointing, but He himself will never disappoint. Why? Because He is trustworthy. He is worthy of being trusted. He is the Creator and Lover of our souls. He knows best. Always. And especially when it doesn’t seem so. We don’t have to understand the circumstances. Indeed, we will not, nor does he ask us to. But we are called to trust Him. Even and especially when we don’t understand.

I never thought in a million years I’d be a single mom. But I am. And you know what? Even though God said “no” to saving my marriage, He said “yes” to a lot of other things. He’s blessed me in ways beyond my comprehension so that I can say, “You know what? I’m not just surviving. I’m thriving.” I don’t mean to say that life is a bowl of cherries and I have an easy road. It’s not about that. I just mean that God has been faithful. And though He doesn’t always make sense, He is showing me that I can trust Him in the midst of all the hard stuff. That is where my comfort lies. That is where I thrive. 

When God says no, we need to trust him. We don’t trust him because He does what we want or because it makes sense to us, but because He is who He says He is and that, my friends, is enough.

So, next time God says no, instead of responding with, “Oh noooo!” or “Why?!” let’s practice saying, “Okay, Lord. I don’t get it, but I thank You for what You are going to do because whatever it is, I know it will be good.”

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

Learning to trust Him,
Kim

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