{"id":288,"date":"2009-10-25T13:45:23","date_gmt":"2009-10-25T18:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=288"},"modified":"2009-10-25T13:45:23","modified_gmt":"2009-10-25T18:45:23","slug":"when-god-says-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2009\/10\/25\/when-god-says-no\/","title":{"rendered":"When God says No"},"content":{"rendered":"

[This devotion is taken from last Sunday’s sermon. The audio for the entire sermon is available here<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

How do you react when God answers \u201cNo” to your prayers?
\nWe are tempted to think of ourselves as potential worshipers of different religions, and thus of different gods. These different gods, are almost like presidential candidates vying for our vote, for our affections, for our commitment. If a god promises us enough, and exhibits enough power and love toward us to show he is sincere and able to keep his promises, then we will cast out vote for him. He\u2019ll be our candidate, our god.<\/p>\n

How do we cast our vote? By:<\/p>\n

coming to church,
\ngiving money,
\nreading the Bible,
\noffering prayers.
\nWe say (rather like the immature Jacob in Genesis 28), \u201cIf you, god, do your part, I\u2019ll come to worship services, you\u2019ll be my candidate (oops, I mean you\u2019ll be my god).\u201d<\/p>\n

God just needs to live up to His campaign promises, and then we\u2019ll live up to our commitment to stand by Him, to worship Him in this quid pro quo sense.<\/p>\n

Is that the way you\u2019ve approached God? Is that what your relationship to God looks like?<\/p>\n

If your relationship to God is based on such an arrangement, what happens when God says, \u201cNo\u201d? What happens is that you switch parties. He\u2019s no longer your candidate, your god. Effectively, you end up saying:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf God doesn\u2019t save the life of this child,
\nif He doesn\u2019t bring my husband back to me,
\nif he doesn\u2019t stop this war,
\nif he doesn\u2019t take away this temptation I face,
\nthen I\u2019m out of here. That negative answer will show that Christianity doesn\u2019t work. I won\u2019t offer that god any more worship: No more coming to church, no more giving money, no more reading the Bible, no more offering of prayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

When we think this way, we are treating God like an approximate equal, a man \u2013 a rich and powerful man, perhaps even a good man, but nevertheless a man with whom we have some bargaining power, one whom we need to hold accountable, and make sure He lives up to His agreement.<\/p>\n

We must remember again and again: The difference between us and God is much greater than the difference between a two-year-old child and his parents. And two-year-olds should not treat their parents like approximate equals.<\/p>\n

Consider this encounter:<\/p>\n

Father to two-year-old: \u201cI love you, my child, and I will always provide for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Child: \u201cOK, Daddy, if you\u2019ll put food on my plate each meal and give me warm blankets, then once a week I\u2019ll join my siblings in saying, \u201cThank you\u201d, and I\u2019ll acknowledge you as a good Dad, and I\u2019ll share my ice cream with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

What would you think of two-year-old who says that?:<\/p>\n

God is our Father. He loves us. He loves to meet our requests for our genuine needs. Keep remembering Luke 12:32: \u201cIt is the Father\u2019s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we can see from Jesus\u2019 model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13 (the \u201cLord\u2019s Prayer\u201d), true prayer has three steps: Acknowledging that God is our loving Father, and we are like little children before Him; asking that He might be glorified, and acknowledging that this must happen; and asking that we might have all we need in order to play our role in glorifying Him.<\/p>\n

And this, indeed, is the basis of true worship. Worship is not a quid pro quo arrangement with God \u2013 \u201cYou scratch my back and I\u2019ll scratch yours.\u201d Worship does not consist of our coming to church, giving money, reading the Bible, and offering prayers. Those acts can be acts of worship. But those acts in and of themselves are not worship.<\/p>\n

Instead, worship is loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and expressing that love. Worship is valuing Christ more than all the world has to offer, and acting, thinking, and feeling in accord with that value.<\/p>\n

So if we are not to treat God like a presidential candidate, how should we understand God\u2019s negative answers to our requests?<\/p>\n

When God says no, He is telling us:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need that to glorify Me. Trust Me in this. Your trusting me when I seem to say no magnifies My name. Your valuing Me more than the gift you wanted from Me glorifies Me. Know that I love you. I am with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. My kingdom must come. My will must be done. Believe me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus Himself shows us how this is done: The night He was betrayed, He asked that He might not go to the cross, saying:<\/p>\n

“My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” . . . “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26:39, 42)<\/p>\n

He begins with the first part of prayer, addressing God as Father, and seeing Himself as a beloved child (Mark records that He said, \u201cAbba, Father\u201d \u2013 an even more intimate expression). He then moves to the second part of prayer. Recall that the Lord\u2019s Prayer includes these phrases: \u201cYour kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.\u201d Jesus uses exactly the same words at the end of verse 42: \u201cYour will be done.\u201d He wants God\u2019s kingdom to come. He wants God to be glorified in all the earth. And He knows that His death \u2013 as terrible as it will be \u2013 is part of God\u2019s plan to bring glory to Himself. As He had said earlier that afternoon:<\/p>\n

“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” (John 12:27-28)<\/p>\n

The third, final step of prayer is implicit in both John 12 and Matthew 26: Jesus effectively is asking, \u201cGive me the strength, the courage, the perseverance I need to glorify Your Name in the midst of this horrible, painful death.\u201d<\/p>\n

God the Father said no to Jesus\u2019 request to have the cup of death pass from Him. In that sense, His request was denied.<\/p>\n

But God glorified His Name. God fulfilled His perfect will. And that always was Jesus\u2019 primary request. God the Father gave Him what He needed to glorify His Name.<\/p>\n

That is His promise to us. And that is how we should pray. If we are praying rightly \u2013 that is, if we are following the three steps of the Lord\u2019s prayer, all our requests build on the first two steps:<\/p>\n

All our requests are based on God being our loving Father, and we being His children through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus all our requests begin with an acknowledgment that He is much, much wiser than we are.
\nAll our requests aim to glorify God, to bring in His kingdom, to accomplish His will. In true prayer, any requests for ourselves are made with that end in mind.
\nGod promises that He always answers yes to such requests. But because we are two-year-olds and He is Father, we often won\u2019t understand how He has answered our prayers. We will need to trust Him. We will not receive all we think we need. But He will always give us what we truly need to glorify Him.<\/p>\n

So have you been bargaining with God? Have you effectively put yourself in the role of a voter, and God in the role of a presidential candidate seeking your endorsement?<\/p>\n

See Him as Father. Make knowing Him the desire of your life. Seek His honor and His glory above all. And then ask \u2013 and you will receive what you need to glorify Him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[This devotion is taken from last Sunday’s sermon. The audio for the entire sermon is available here.] How do you react when God answers \u201cNo” to your prayers? We are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}