when God says yes

    10 steps to follow when God says no.           How to handle a Divine 'wait.' 

               Help! God won't let me!                            When the Creator is silent. 

We see titles like this all the time. And we should! As God's children, we've all experienced His no. And it can leave us feeling thwarted, discouraged, or (dare we admit it) just plain angry. But what about when God says yes? Does He say yes? To what things? Here's a few I came up with recently:

Daily mercies (Lam. 3:22-23)                     His ear when I pray (Ps. 55:17)

Grace (2 Cor. 9:8; 12:9)                            Guidance (Prov. 3:5-6)      

Wisdom (Jas. 1:5-6)                                  Strength (Is. 40:31; Ps. 37:39; 2 Cor. 12:9) 

Victory (I Cor. 10:13; Rom 7:24-25)           Enabling (I Thess. 5:24; Jn. 15:5)

Peace (Phil. 4:6-7)                                     Every thing God deems good (Ps. 34:10; 84:11) 

This list is a very small sampling made very quickly. Every promise in the Bible? Is a guaranteed yes. Every statement of positional truth? A yes. Asking God to work out His character/revealed will? Automatic yes. 

But let's rewind for a moment. I would say one of the biggest no's in my life right now is marriage. It's very real. And it affects my every day. I also know that focusing on that no can lead to depression, moral shipwreck, rebellion, crippling insecurity...we see it happen all the time, right?

And although the yes list above sparkles with spiritual truth, sometimes I'm left wondering how it applies to my real life. I mean, what about things like a spouse, a child, a raise, a job/ministry position, relief from a trial, physical healing...if there's no way to be assured a yes in these rubber-meets-the-road examples, then does the list really matter? 

Yes. Here's why:

When I pursue how God is saying yes and set my mind on it? When I keep on asking for those things knowing I'm going to receive them? I find that I do much more than survive under a Divine no. I thrive. I have all and abound. Plenty strength for my countless weaknesses. Peace so perfect that I can't even understand it. Not a mere shred of wisdom but a liberal, unending gush of it. Mercy new this morning and tailored to this day. Satisfaction. Deliverance. Guidance. Victory...and these? Dramatically impact my real life. 

When I claim this list of Divine yes, the no shrinks into perspective. It's no longer a massive, suffocating blanket. It's a mere thread woven into the beautiful pattern God is working in my life. A pattern that, if I could zoom out far enough, would appear to be the biggest yes possible: I am working all together for your good and My glory. (Rom. 8:28) 

.................................................................

Like a prism reflecting the afternoon light, the Divine yes shines on every part of our lives. Dancing into hidden corners of fear and worry. Beaming onto shadows of pain and loss. Making the normal surroundings of God-given responsibilities glow with warmth and beauty. God is always saying yes. Yes to being with us (Heb. 13:5-6). Yes to being for us (Rom 8:31). Yes to being in us (Col 1:27; Gal. 2:20). And working through us (Phil. 4:13)...

So the question changes. It's no longer when will God stop saying no to_______? But how is He saying yes? And that, my friend, is a question with an answer as wide as eternity and as infinite as God Himself. 

Beth