A God who says "No" when you want a "Yes" answer

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.  Job 13:15

“O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come” – so sang generations of men and women who endured all kinds of tough times. Today, however, our generation is not so confident that God is our hope for years to come. When they expect God to say “Yes” and He says “No” they are thrown into deep distress. They quickly lose hope.

The Bible speaks of hope for some 158 times. Women who were barren talked about the hope of having children. Men and women in prison talked about the hope of deliverance. The Apostle Paul talked about Abraham, whom God promised will have an heir born to his wife, even while she was long past the age of childbearing. Others, facing death, talked of the hope of deliverance. 

But the hope that this book offers is linked to the reality of a God who is there. He is a God who cares and loves you enough to say “No!” when you want a “Yes” answer shouted loudly from heaven. The lesson we can learn from these people who have been in difficult situations is that there is hope, and there is an antidote to the despair which drives so many of our contemporaries to drugs, alcohol, depression and even suicide.

Sometimes you have to tell your emotions and feelings where to get off and hold on to what you know to be true – that God is a good God and that He hasn’t forsaken you or forgotten you, or singled you out for punishment simply because He said “No!” Realize that God is the source of our hope, and that He alone can drive back the despair and hopelessness of a broken, imperfect world.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.” Matthew 16:24-27