No Is An Answer To Prayer
the word of God came to Nathan: “Go to David my servant and say, ‘This is what the LORD says: You are not the one to build me a house to dwell in. - 1 Chronicles 17:4
No is a word children hate to hear! I saw a social media video of a baby asking its mother if it could touch or have a toy. The baby pointed to the object of its affection, and Mom is heard saying, "No!" The baby instantly began crying as though life were over. It is such a funny little video, and as I watched it, it reminded me of myself when God tells me no!
King David desired to build God a permanent dwelling place, the Temple. The desire was good, noble even, and when the prophet Nathan heard David's plan to build a house for the Lord, he agreed with the king, saying, "Do all that is in your heart to do!" After all, why would God object to such a wonderful gesture? However, as we see in our text above, God did not want David to build the Temple. Nathan had to return to the king and inform him that God had said no.
David did not throw a tantrum. In fact, he gave the blueprints to his son Solomon so that he could build it. My pastor used to teach us that God often answers our prayers in one of three ways: 'Yes, No, or Wait.'" No is not always the answer we want to hear, but I am learning in this season of my life that no is an answer to prayer. The question is, am I okay with no? I have found that I am not, but I need to be. As a Christian, I do not always get my way. Jesus taught us that the proper posture of our hearts should be, "Not my will, but Thy will be done."
We do not always have the privilege of knowing why God says no or why He says, "Not yet." But what I do know is that every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of Lights. That even includes the answer, no. God knows better than we do, and I need to have the faith to accept His will. I do not want to be like that little baby in the video. I want to be like Jesus and like David, accepting both the yeses and the nos of the Lord.
Agape,
Frank
