When God Says "No"

My head pastor was away this weekend so he decided to show us a sermon by Andy Stanley. If you have 20 minutes I highly recommend that you check it out...here you go. Andy Stanley: What can you expect from God?


Stanley talks about "When God says No"....he gives an interesting example: What we want from God usually means that we want to be God and have everything go "Right" for ourselves. If this is how God operated then he would be in a rock and hard place because if I got what I wanted all the time, that means someone else would not get what they wanted, for example if I applied for a job and prayed that I would get it and someone else prayed the same thing, who would get the job if we all got what we wanted? God's plans are so much bigger then getting what we want, it's a huge complex intertwining of interactions, stories and experiences.

The Apostle Paul author of 2 Corinthians is struggling with some physical ailment and pleas
with God on 3 separate occasions that God would remove this physical ailment from him because it is so discouraging to him. What we eventually find out is that God uses this ailment as a way to keep Paul accountable so that he can never take pride in the work that God does through him and that no one can doubt that the works done through Paul is only done because of God. "But my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" 2 Cor 12:9

This verse that I have heard so many times made so much more sense and was very encouraging as Stanley points out because Paul one of the most zealous people for God, still struggled to see God's plan in his weakness. I then began to reflect on my life and the times that God has told me "no" and how often he has said "yes" and how all of these things have molded and shaped me to who I am today. God said "yes" to healing my mother of cancer last spring....praise the Lord. God said "yes" for me to attend Grad School at Geneva even though my undergraduate grades should not have allowed me to. God said "yes" for me to get into Gordon which I should not have been able to get in with my High School grades (yes there is trend with academics here, not on purpose).

On the contrary God has said "no" to several relationships with girls that I wanted to date, and God has said "no" to several different job opportunities, but I can reflect back on these no's and yes' and see Gods plan and how great it has been. God is sovereign and He's going to do what He wants, in order to shape me and mold me to what He wants me to be. Many times we will not understand His no's and we might not ever find out until we pass on to Heaven, but that is what blind faith is all about. Why would we ever wish heartache, pain and disappointment on ourselves? We wouldn't because we're selfish, fallen beings...but God uses those things so that we can be better people of God and serve Him and His kingdom better.