The Answer Was No

"The answer to my prayer was NO, in order that I may be specially blessed"

-Elisabeth Elliot

The Lord provided the exact words that I needed to read today. So often He needs to say NO, in order that He may, in some way say YES.  This past Tuesday night at Club, a student came to me about a situation where it seemed like God may be saying "no". She was frustrated and a little angry. There didn't seem to be a good reason why the answer would be "no", and there seemed to be lots of reasons why the answer should be "yes".

I shared with her that something similar had happened to us prior to our move here. The first offer on our house fell through days before closing. We had already moved out of our home, had a newborn baby, and we still didn't know exactly where we were going to be.  I admitted to her that I was angry at God.  I thought "God what are you doing! You are making us look like fools! We are going to be missionaries,  why aren't you taking care of us!" (part of our story)

But I marvel at how God shows His mercy in ways far beyond our understanding. See, His refusal was His mercy. His refusal brought us to a place where our hearts were fully prepared to serve Him. He needed us in that place. It wasn't a failure, or "a sign" that we had done the wrong thing. No, it was a time for Him to really claim our hearts as His own, to gain our trust and our devotion fully, and to test our desire to follow Him.

And if I am honest, even now I find us in that place again. We have been praying over something for months.  I look forward to the Lord specially blessing this situation. I look forward to standing back and seeing the great things that He has orchestrated that we can not even imagine!