When we pray for something and God says, ‘No,’ it can be bewildering at times. It can hurt - a lot. Particularly for people who tend to think of God as an ATM machine - stick your Christian card in and get whatever you want out.
But I’ve discovered over the past few years that God’s ‘no’s’ are actually blessings, much as they may not seem like it at the time. And it may take a long time for you to understand - you may never understand - but recognize that when you get a ‘no,’ that is actually God’s protection and provision. My own life is chock full of blessings that came as a direct result of God’s ‘no.’
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“Do not forget the good things the Lord has done for you...”
The writer of Hebrews puts a great emphasis on remembering what God has done. He practically goes through the entire history of Israel, urging his readers to learn from the mistakes of those people and not emulate their hardness of heart. “History repeats itself” is an old maxim, and I think the primary reason for this is that we do forget...we don’t remember, and it causes us to repeat the mistakes of past generations. Or, even worse, our memories are so short we repeat our own mistakes. But even worse than repeating our mistakes is when we forget the goodness of God. It’s been a while since I’ve stopped long enough to think about writing a post, let alone actually sit down and do it. I’ve been busy, but not in the way that most people would necessarily define ‘busy.’
In some ways, I’ve been busy resting. Busy spending time with family. And yes, busy at work, too, in the more traditional sense of the word. We’re in our year-end crunch at the moment, and I spend nearly every weekday up to my eyeballs in social media posts. That is not a complaint – in fact, I love it, and though I’m tired by the end of the day, I’m also invigorated. I’ve gotten the privilege of traveling around the U.S. a lot. My first birthday was spent in New Mexico, my ninth in Utah, my eleventh somewhere in the U.S. - I’ve forgotten where - and my thirteenth driving across Kansas. I learned to walk in Utah and learned to talk in Montana. I’ve spent Christmas in Texas, California, Arizona, and Florida in various years growing up.
I’ve gotten to see natural wonders like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Arches, and Mt. Reiner. I’ve climbed mountains, hiked along beaches lining the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans as well as the Gulf of Mexico, seen arches and natural bridges, waded in the longest rivers the continental U.S. has to offer, and stood on the edge of canyons so deep I could hardly see the bottom. I visited 48 states before I was a teenager (more than a decade later, I’m still waiting on my last two...) This week, I have more of an interesting testimony to share than a really 'teachy' post, but I think it's worth bringing attention to it because it highlights the real power of prayer.
Recently, my family and I were invited to visit the home of a family of another faith. I smelled burning incense the moment I walked through the door, but I didn't really think about why (plenty of people burn incense or candles to make their air smell nice). That is, I didn't think about it until I sat down on the far side of the room and realized I'd chosen a seat next to a shrine. I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the need to watch who and what we are trusting (last week just kind of got away from me, so no blog post). This week, I want to talk a little bit more about trust - or, more accurately, mistrust and unbelief - and its impact on our lives and destinies.
A lot of people think that it was Moses’ disobedience that led to God saying he couldn’t enter the promised land after the affair with the rock he struck to get water out of instead of speaking to it like God told him to. And while that was the incident that made up God’s mind, it wasn’t Moses’ disobedience that He called out as the reason. “I’m just naturally untrusting” - Rene Thompson, a character in a book my dad wrote years ago.
While many of us may not quote Rene exactly - or at least, we wouldn’t say it in so many words, the reality is that quite a lot of people feel that way deep down. We’re not quite so sure we want to trust people, ourselves, or even (and for some people, especially) God. It comes out in our behavior all the time. “Complaining is the prayer language of hell.” - Graham Cooke
This week, I want to touch on another aspect of sin that can keep you from entering your destiny quickly - or at all. Last week, I talked about idolatry and its role in keeping people out of their destinies, but this week, I want to talk about an even less popular subject: Complaining. Most of us aren’t aware of how much we complain every day. If we stopped long enough to listen to our words, reread our social media posts, or review the thoughts that were going through our brains, I think we’d be downright shocked at how many complaints are in our hearts. When a lot of us think of idols, we think of statues of wood, bronze, stone, gold, silver, or just about any other readily available material. To many of us, these things are a thing of the past - from Bible times, perhaps. Or if they’re not of the past, they’re definitely confined to less Westernized cultures. After all, we’re simply too concrete to worship something that cannot talk, eat, or do anything else for itself. We’re rational beings!
But the truth is that idols are everywhere. They’re present in everyone’s lives, and the real danger of them is that so many of them are acceptable in our Western culture. They exist in the world, in the church, and in our own lives. Why do we have such an obsession with royalty?
This question came to mind after I was thinking about people’s fascination with the various royal families that have managed to survive in our democratic era (an obsession that I shamelessly share). The British royal family is undoubtedly the best known, but many other nations have kept a figurehead with the title of king or queen (they’re called constitutional monarchies in case you were curious). A few select nations have even kept around their absolute monarchies (monarchs with total power over the government). |
Sarah GraceHi! I'm Sarah Grace, and I'm so glad you stopped by the Wings of Heaven blog! You can find short posts for easy reading or longer, more in-depth musings! I hope you're blessed! Archives
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