Proverbs2:6 “For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.”
I have a friend named Dan McKeever who writes a daily devotional for his
friends and Sunday school class members. He recently wrote, “Why does God say, ‘No’? Experience teaches us there are many reasons. One, it is for the sake of other people. Best example, Jesus in Gethsemane, ‘If it be possible, let this cup pass.’ God said no to His Son’s request for the sake of you and me. We are so like the little frog living at the bottom of a well who observes the tiny bit of cloudy sky above his well and pronounced it to be a very stormy day. The sparrow, sitting on top of the well, looked at the entire blue sky with only a single cloud above the well and kindly corrected his froggy friend who was dead wrong. The only way we can improve our froggy perspective is to rely on God. Sometimes the kindest thing He does is to deny our requests.” God’s wisdom is so much greater than ours. He can see what we do not see. It is true that, often when God says ‘No,’ and closes a door, it is because He can see something better for our lives. I love Virginia’s response to Dan’s devotional. She wrote, “I remember praying and asking to God to keep me at various churches and not to make me move. Each time He said, “No,” and each time there was a beautiful lesson, growth, people to love me, and something better than what I was leaving.” Sometimes the kindest thing God does is deny our requests. Ponder that today.
– Tim Thompson, Senior Pastor