He Said, “No”

It was eight o’clock; two hours left of work.   I was working the closing shift.  It was a retailer’s nightmare. I had about a bazillion things to do and not nearly enough time in which to get the tasks completed.  It felt like Deja vu.  I had been in this situation many times and it had NEVER ended well.  We had lines of customers all wanting service, and equipment needing to be cleaned.  Add to this, the fact that there was only two of us to get everything done.  The stress level was rising and I just knew we were going to finish late.  I have to confess, I was beginning to stomp my feet inside.  I didn’t WANT to stay late to finish cleaning.  So, as I was snatching a few minutes to wash a few dishes between customers, I said, “God, help!  I really don’t want to stay any later than I have to.”  As nine o’clock approached, I realized that, amid all the chaos, we had somehow managed to get caught up and we were pretty close to on schedule.  Our stress began to ease a little and we began to joke and talk realizing that we were “likely” to finish on time and NOT late as we had feared.  Later, as we put the finishing touches on our work, we looked at each other and said, “How did we do that?” I knew as I walked out on time praising God that he had heard and answered my prayer.  We all love those kind of prayers.  The ones where God chooses to answer our prayers with a resounding “YES”.  But what about the times when he says, “No.” Am I as quick to praise God for that answer? I have to admit that I don’t always like being told “no” not even by God.  I have had to ask forgiveness, many times, for my own response to God’s “no’s.” It occurred to me that when God says no, he may indeed be more interested in my response than anything else.  Perhaps God is asking, “Will you still love me if I don’t say yes?”  God wants us to love and praise him regardless of how he answer our prayers.  Sometimes God may testing me to see if I will love him even if he does not do what I want.  If I say I love God, but I get angry when he does not answer a prayer in the way I want, is that really love? God wants me to love him because he is God, not because of anything he does for me.  After all, the greatest thing he can do for me, he did two thousand years ago when he loved me so much that died a sinner’s death so I could have eternal life.  If God never gave me one other thing, it would still be way more than I deserve.  But he does lavish other blessings on me; he does answer my prayers.  So when he says “no”, I will praise him even then.

No Matter What

Anything I don't have You can give it to me
But it's okay if You don't, I'm not here for those things
The touch of Your love is enough on its own
No matter what I still love You and I'm gonna need You

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