When God Says No

1Ki 8:56  Blessed be the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.

Some day we shall understand that God has a reason in every NO which He speaks through the slow movement of life. 

Somehow God makes up to us.

How often, when His people are worrying and perplexing themselves about their prayers not being answered, is God answering them in a far richer way! 

Glimpses of this we see occasionally, but the full revelation of it remains for the future.

If God says 'Yes' to our prayer, dear heart, And the sunlight is golden, the sky is blue...
 
While the smooth road beckons to me and you, And the song-birds warble as on we go...
 
Pausing to gather the buds at our feet, Stopping to drink of the streamlets we meet...
 
Happy, more happy, our journey will grow, If God says 'Yes' to our prayer, dear heart.

If God says 'No' to our prayer, dear heart, And the clouds hang heavy and dull and gray...
 
If the rough rocks hinder and block the way, While the sharp winds pierce us and sting with cold...
 
Oh, dear, there is home at the journey's end...
 
And these are the trials the Father doth send To draw us as sheep to His Heavenly fold...
 
If God says 'No' to our prayer, dear heart.

Oh for the faith that does not make haste, but waits patiently for the Lord, waits for the explanation that shall come in the end, at the revelation of Jesus Christ! 

When did God take anything from a man, without giving him manifold more in return? 

Suppose that the return had not been made immediately manifest, what then? 

Is today the limit of God's working time? 

Has He no provinces beyond this little world? 

Does the door of the grave open upon nothing but infinite darkness and eternal silence?

Yet, even confining the judgment within the hour of this life, it is true that God never touches the heart with a trial without intending to bring upon it some grander gift, some tenderer benediction. 

He has attained to an eminent degree of Christian grace who knows how to wait.
 
~Selected

When the frosts are in the valley, And the mountain tops are grey...
 
And the choicest buds are blighted, And the blossoms die away...
 
A loving Father whispers, "This cometh from my hand"...
 
Blessed are ye if ye trust Where ye cannot understand.

If, after years of toiling, Your wealth should fly away...
 
And leave your hands all empty, And your locks are turning grey...
 
Remember then your Father Owns all the sea and land...
 
Blessed are ye if ye trust Where ye cannot understand.
 
~Selected

They Want To Keep As Near To Sodom As Possible!

Gen 19:17  And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

This is still the gospel message. 

We are in danger of God's judgment and must escape from it if we would live. 

We must not stay anywhere in all the plain of sin for there is no safe spot, no shelter anywhere, no place where the fires of judgment will not fall.

Some people would like to compromise...

They are willing to flee from some sins but not from others.

There are some professed Christians who like to stay on the borders of their old life. 

They are continually asking whether they can do this or that, go here or there and still be Christians.

They want to keep just as near to Sodom as possible, so as not to be burnt up in Sodom's destruction! 

The answer to all such questions is, "Run for your lives! 

Do not stop anywhere in the plain. 

Do not look back! 

Escape to the mountain, or you will die!

Even the borders are unsafe! 

The only safe place is the mountain, the mountain where Christ's Cross stands!

Lot's wife 'looked back'. 

There had been a specific command, "Do not look back!" 

Why Lot's wife looked back is not explained. 

Was it curiosity to see the nature of the terrible destruction that she heard roaring behind her? 

Or was it her dismay as she thought of her beautiful home, with all its wealth of furnishing and decoration, and all her jewels and garments and other possessions which were now being consumed in the great conflagration?

It would seem to be, that she was appalled at the thought of leaving and losing all her beloved possessions...

And paused in her flight and looked back, with the hope that possibly she might yet run back and snatch some of the ornaments or gems, something, at least, from the awful destruction.

But Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt!

Remember Lot's wife! Luke 17:32. 

We should not miss the 'lesson' which our Lord Himself teaches us from the tragic fate of this woman...

We cannot have both worlds!

Lot's wife could have escaped with her husband and her daughters but she could escape only by resolutely and determinedly leaving everything she had in Sodom. 

Her love for her possessions, cost her her life!

Just so, there are thousands today, to whom God's message comes, "Run for your lives! 

Do not stop anywhere in the plain. 

Do not look back! 

Escape to the mountain, or you will die!

They somewhat desire to follow Christ  but their love for the world is so intense that they cannot give it up they cannot renounce it.

They must decide, however, which they will renounce, Christ or the world. 

They cannot keep both!

In Lot's wife, we have an example of one who was almost saved, and yet lost! 

She was lost because she loved the world.

Remember Lot's wife!

~J. R. Miller~

Bearing The Sting

Isa 53:7  He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.

How much grace it requires to bear a misunderstanding rightly, and to receive an unkind judgment in holy sweetness!

Nothing tests the Christian character more than to have some evil thing said about him.

This is the file that soon proves whether we are electro-plate or solid gold.

If we could only know the blessings that lie hidden in our trials we would say like David, when Shimei cursed him, "Let him curse, it may be, that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day."

Some people get easily turned aside from the grandeur of their life-work by pursuing their own grievances and enemies, until their life gets turned into one little petty whirl of warfare.

It is like a nest of hornets. 

You may disperse the hornets, but you will probably get terribly stung, and get nothing for your pains, for even their honey is not worth a search.

God give us more of His Spirit, "who, when he was reviled, reviled not again"; but "committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."

Consider him that endureth such contradiction of sinners against himself.

~A. B. Simpson

Before you He trod all the path of woe, He took the sharp thrusts with His head bent low.
    
He knew deepest sorrow and pain and grief, He knew long endurance without relief...

He took all the bitter from death's deep cup, He kept not a blood-drop but gave all up.

Before you and for you, He won the fight...

To bring you to glory and realms of light.

~L.S.P.