When the answer is NO...

I remember growing up in a home where mom was the boss, and my dad was the provider. My mom always made the decisions and when it came to the kids...dad would NEVER get involved.
Even though my dad never got involved, I was HIS girl. He would always bring me my favorite pastry, candy or whatever I wanted right before dinner without my mom knowing, my dad liked to spoil my appetite before dinner ;).
I loved my dad and he hardly ever said NO to me. It didn't take long to figure out how to manipulate my parents. When I wanted to go somewhere and I knew my mom would say no, I would ask my dad first because he would say yes and then my mom HAD to say yes...(by the way I caught my daughter doing that last month...and then I told my husband that he could not say yes to anything she asked until WE discussed it together).

Once I turned ten, my father realized that I was NO longer a little girl. The first time my father said NO I went on a rebellious rampage that led from one bad decision to the next, and with no parental guidance on site It only got worse as the days went by (my mother lived in the hospital until I was 14 an my father worked the second shift). Who knew that one of the most stupid decisions of my life was going to lead me to road of salvation....

When I got saved I felt like my heavenly father gave me a lot of things that I prayed for even when I felt I didn't deserve it (kinda like my earthly father). I have grown so much over the years, and I have also learned that the answer is not always yes. I remember the first time my heavenly father said No to me, my father died that day when he went in for a simple procedure that the doctor said would not take long, and my father would be great. Hours upon hours went by and finally the doctor called us in and said that my father had suffered cardiac arrest, and that they could not resuscitate him in time so his brain had died from not receiving enough oxygen. I remember crying out to God so hard that I felt like my chest was going to explode, I wanted God to bring him back, to save him, to bring him back to my mother. But God said NO.

What happens to us when the answer is NO? Does our faith in God change? Do we turn our backs? For a few people sadly that is the answer. Not for me...I decided that there had to be a reason why God was saying NO to me, for little while I thought that God was not listening to me. Little did I know that God had already responded by not responding. As I matured in my Christian walk, my prayers have changed from "God take away this pain" to "God help me bear this pain and help me learn what you are trying to teach me". There is ALWAYS a lesson to be learned. God only wants what is best for us, and he would NEVER say yes to one of our prayer if it meant it could possibly lead us away from him or hurt us.
We often times think that because God IS God, he wont let our father die, or we wont loose our job, or one of our family members wont be terminally ill after all. Well you know what? Sometimes our father calls our father to heaven, sometimes God had bigger plans for us other than that job, and sometimes it takes an illness to bring you closer to God. The answer will NOT always be YES, only God knows what he has planned for all of us. In fact sometimes for our own good, or that of others, "NO" is the only answer a loving God would give.
I am VERY thankful for all the prayers in which God has said YES, but none of those have brought me closer to the Lord than the ones in which the answer was NO.

Keep this in mind when you YOUR answer is NO:

I. God always has an answer...and like it or not "NO" is an answer too.

II. Just because God will not, does not mean He CANNOT. He is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or even think. (Eph 3:20-21)

III. We don't always know what His purpose is, but we can affirm THAT it is; and because of what God has revealed to us of Himself; we know that His purpose is all-loving and all-wise