Why God Says, "NO!"

Yesterday I established that sometimes God says, "No" to our requests.  So the next question that many have is  Why does God say, “No”?  If God truly loved us why would he say, “No” to us?  Here are four reasons.

1. To keep us dependent on Him ( 2 Corinthians 12: 7 – 10)
   1. God gave Paul a “thorn in the flesh”.  We are unsure what this “thorn” was but we do know Paul asked to have it removed. 
   2. Paul asked God three times to remove this thorn and three times God answered, “No”.  God said, “My grace is sufficient for you.  For my power is made perfect in weakness.” 
   3. According to Paul God gave this thorn to keep Paul humble and dependent on Him.
2. Because we do not always know what God is up to (Numbers 22:22 – 35)
   1. Balaam wanted to keep moving forward but the donkey wouldn’t move.
   2. He beat the donkey and he wouldn’t budge.
   3. Was the donkey stubborn or did he see what Balaam could not.  There was an Angel of the Lord with a drawn sword standing in the road.
   4. In the donkey’s stubbornness he was actually preserving his life.
   5. The Lord graciously opened the mouth of the donkey.  The donkey spoke and informed Balaam that he saw what others couldn’t see.
   6. When Balaam’s eyes were opened and he saw what was actually going on he was thankful and worshiped God.
3. Our ways are not God’s ways (Isaiah 55:8)
   1. We do not always know what God is up to all the time.
   2. In some situations we cannot even fathom what God is doing.
   3. We may not know or even understand why God does and will what he does but we should always remember our ways may not be his ways but his ways are always better.
4. To protect us
   1. God has a perfect plan and purpose for you.  His ways are better and although we may not understand in the moment why God is doing what he is doing he is shaping and leading you to go where he wants you to go (My dark night of the soul).
   2. In God’s mercy he will hinder from making the wrong choices that will affect our future.

He will put up warning signs to keep us from going where we are not supposed to go.  We just need to heed them.