WHEN GOD SAYS NO

I have never understood the relationship between God and the Israelites. Of all the races of people on the face of planet earth he chooses the Israelites; the most stubborn country of people there ever was. He gave laws and they disobeyed, He cautioned and they did not listen, He threatened but they turned a deaf ear. Yet every time they showed remorse and acknowledged their sins He forgave them and everything was okay till the next time the cycle of sin resumed.

Take a look at the history of the Kings of Israel; when they worshiped God they were fruitful but soon they turned their back on Him. God gave them time to repent and when they didn’t He took His protection and gave them war and death. This didn’t stop him from loving or watching over them even at the height of His anger when He let His precious Israelites be shipped off in exile to Babylon as slaves where they suffered for a long time. Soon they were begging for forgiveness but the Lord let them suffer. It wasn’t that He didn’t love them anymore or that He didn’t see the suffering of his people but He had His reasons.

In life we must come across hard times and frustrations. It might be for a few days, weeks, months or even years. We pray through all this as we beg God to lift us up yet nothing seems to change.

A couple of years back I was working at a job where I was grossly underpaid and seeking better employment but it just looked like it would never happen for me. I watched as one after the other my friends got good jobs and settled into their lives while I was still struggling to eat and get by each month. It was frustrating to say the same prayers day and night begging God to look upon me and change my situation but nothing happened. I would lose hope and stop praying for a while then guilt would set in and I resumed after some time but it wasn’t until I understood that I had to let God work in my life at his own pace that I found any sort of peace in my situation.

So the question here is what can we do to change the NO that seems to be hanging over our head into a Yes?

As we wait, how do we deal with the frustration and other negative feelings that threaten to overwhelm us as we watch time fly without anything seeming to go our way?

Sin is a big reason why it might appear that God isn’t listening to us when we pray.

Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he doesn’t hear.

Think about it for a minute; we want something from God but we are unwilling to give Him the one thing that He wants with us which is a close and true relationship. Good root is good fruit and bad root is bad fruit. We must root out from our lives those vices that keep us from getting close to God if we truly want Him to give us a listening ear when we come to Him in prayer so that He finds it worthy and acceptable.

Now while we wait it is important for us to not be anxious because anxiety is a sign of faithlessness and this shows our lack of trust in God and His ability to do what we ask of Him.

Isaiah 46:4 I am the Lord your God and will take care of you until you are old and your hair is grey. I make you and will care for you; I will give you help and rescue you.

My life is different now from two years ago when I was an ambitious young lady with big dreams but an underpaid worker. I work a better paying job but I still have ambitions for more. I still get frustrated from time to time when it appears that God is listening but isn’t acting. I deal with my frustrations by always praying above all else that God’s will be done first in my life because he knows my future and what I need right now. I read the bible to remind myself of his promises to me:

Isaiah 49:14-16 The Lord has forsaken me…Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

I also read stories and real life experiences of Christians who have endured frustrations and how they dealt with it because their humanity gives me hope that I am not the first person to have such problems.

Frustrations and hard times can either bring us close to God or draw us apart from him if we let it. All Christians will be tested at various points in their lives because life was never meant to be always rosy; but we have the tools for fortitude and endurance. Our faith in God, strength from the bible and a relationship with our maker that reminds us that His NO will not be permanent as long as we can show Him that we will hold fast to Him no matter what just as He has promised to never leave nor forsake us.