When No Is The Best Answer To Our Prayers By Joseph Akinrinola What is the beauty of prayers if not a resounding yes? As expected, you are not likely to go through the exercise of prayers if you think your prayers will be thrown back to you. I am aware of the scriptures that say hope deferred makes the heart weary. Nevertheless, would you rather prefer God not answering you at all to giving you his permissive will that makes your life bitter? It is not out of place to be dissatisfied when God rejects our prayer for whatever reason. To be sincere, I don’t like hearing that, but in my little walk with God, I have come to realize my feeling never changes God or his decision. However, if I insisted on having my way, he would not object to that. More often than not, I have found out God is right after all for delaying or not answering some prayers. A few years ago, during the Sunday school class, a student defined prayer as presenting a request to God and receiving an answer. Immediately another person objected to that, saying God sometimes says no to the request. I responded that “no” is also an answer. Although we do not like to hear that answer, yet God sometimes will say no. My view in this article may not be a popular one, yet reading through can be the difference between your selfish prayers and faith in God to give an answer that best suits you.
First, you must understand it is God’s prerogative to answer some prayers, but decline others. Second, answers to prayers are not about your convenience or blessing, but about God’s glory. Third, we are clueless about the details of what we are praying about. That we are naïve about the future is the reason we fret when we do not get God’s nod to our prayers. Whenever God gives a no to our prayers, then it must be the best for the future and now. Why is no a better answer to our prayers? It is because he knows when our request will be our undoing. Granting us our desire, which is at variance with his words or purpose, will be his permissive will. In addition, when that happens, you can be sure the danger is in the offing. I will cite two examples to drive home my points that no could be the best answer to our prayers. God sent the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah with the message that he would die. As you know, this a direct and personal message to him by a renowned prophet. However, Hezekiah thought God could not be right with his judgment. The king reasoned he had done great things for God and his people, not to be compensated with death. In addition, he had a great plan for his nation, and dying now will be counterproductive. It appears Hezekiah knows the future more than God.
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