Embracing God’s “No!”

Some of our earliest spiritual memories are often God answering our prayers with a clear “yes!” God uses these “yes” experiences to teach us to enjoy His presence. God’s early “yes’s” still resonate loudly with me. Recently I was reminded of my formative years and God’s “no!” It was so difficult for me to embrace His “no” with similar joy and gusto. Yet I now know God’s “no” is equally crucial, unless we want to stagnate in the “beloved child” developmental stage without moving beyond.

Early in my Christian life, I read solid Christian authors who exposed me to how crucial it was for me to deal radically with my self-life. Oh, for sure my pathway was littered with failures. I yielded my heart though to wholehearted allegiance to my heavenly Father. The “cost of discipleship” loomed large. Say no to my flesh-life. Work hard to monitor my thoughts. Still, embracing God’s “no” was tough for me!

In this first year, I journaled in my Bible some of these epic moments of decisively yielding myself to Him. As I reread these recently, nine months after I came to Christ, I wrote this. “Today I died. Praise the Lord. I see that…all things have become new.” Even today, as I tap into that definite, all-in abandonment to God as I knew Him, I again feel the spiritual rush. What a lifetime of joy and satisfaction awaited me from this point on…or so I thought! Seven months later I vowed the same. Perhaps it did not take for me. Two months later, I denied all my self-absorbed life. Two years later, I admitted failure again, and wrote a longer, more decisive commitment. I think you get the picture!

God did yearn for my decisive choices to give Him my wholehearted allegiance. My passive mentors, however, taught me incorrectly that this was a one-time yielding. It’s not. It’s repeated as often as we struggle to yield an area or we wrestle on our journey to walk out allegiance in obedience that cuts across the grain of our self-life. Peter gives us Jesus’ model for how to enter into His freedom (1 Pt 4:1-2). Do we grasp that God’s “no” in prayer and prohibitions are all for our very best?

Begin now to develop a passion to grasp God’s “no” as fully as His “yes.” To add hope, Sunday I heard a message on God’s “no” that eloquently explained how tough it is. I realized afresh how God’s “no” now releases joy in me…most of the time…when I’m spiritually sane! As I look back, I wish I had been taught how good God really is. Since goodness is a part of His essence, He can only do what is good. Both His “yes” and His “no” flow out of His generous goodness. Yet with a high cost! Romans 6:3-4 begins with the cost, death leading to life. Do you currently have any arenas where you wrestle to yield to God?

This came from my book, Foundation Stones. I also have a web-site with tools, books and "more than Bible studies" that have helped me to live out of this spiritual DNA, www.JimFredericks.com