When God says "No!"

 

He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’ An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.

—Luke 22:41-43

God does miracles in response to prayer! He is able! If you agree, can I get an “Amen”?

Most of us, if we’ve lived long enough, can say that God has performed miracles in behalf of us, or in behalf of people we know. He has spared us against impossible odds. He has come to our rescue with resources we didn’t have, or couldn’t see. He has healed those we love, even after doctors did all they could do and after the results they hoped for didn’t come. As a result of faithful prayers, those miracles came with a resounding “Yes!” answer from the God who loves us.

It is important to note that Jesus believed, as we do, that God always heard His prayers. In John 11:41-42, Jesus ended His earnest prayer with these words:

“Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me …”

But, while we always look forward to a “Yes!” when we ask God for something in prayer, in contrast, we must clearly understand that if God answered “No!” to what Jesus prayed in the garden at Gethsemane, certainly, we can also expect that sometimes He will most properly—and for our own good—say “No!” to us, as well.

As we watched my sister die of multiple myeloma, we prayed, in faith, fully believing that God had the power to heal her. She prayed that prayer, too. Yet, when we realized that God had said “No!” to our prayers for healing, we watched her—patiently resigned, submissive, and full of grace—bow to His perfect will for her and take her home to be with Him.

Did God still perform a miracle? He did, indeed! The magnificent way in which she endured her suffering and death had a profound effect on countless numbers of people who watched her yield to the perfect will of the God who loved her. Instead of saying “Yes!” to my sister, and to all of us who prayed for the miracle of healing for her, God sent incredible grace, beauty beyond compare, and a witness to all who knew her of the Resurrection power God had given her, and will give to anyone, who trusts in His provision for our sin.

Instead of saying “Yes!” to Jesus in the garden at Gethsemane, God sent angels to minister to Jesus. God gave Jesus power to face death. And, God gave His precious Son, Jesus, the power to shout victory over sin, death, and Satan on Resurrection morning. Through God’s perfect plan, God used the birth, life, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to bring with that victory the way for all of us to know God and to ultimately triumph over our earthly death.

As recorded in Luke 1:38, the young virgin, Mary—frightened, alarmed, and perhaps even shamed upon hearing about her one-of-its-kind pregnancy—instead of praying to have this burden removed, responded to the angel of God by saying:

“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

We can have the assurance that when God says “No!” to our prayers, in another more perfect sense, He always says “Yes!” to His power to work His perfect will in ways we could never imagine. From Jude 24 we read these words:

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore. Amen.

 

 

In the Hands of the Master Carpenter

 

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.

—2 Timothy 2:20-21

I have several articles made of wood that were finely crafted. They are among my prized possessions because of their beauty, even though they each have a useful purpose, as well. I can imagine the carpenter beginning with a rough piece of wood in which he spied some beauty even before he started. As he sawed and chiseled, rubbed, and finished the piece, it took hours of delicate and expert work.

Imagine a fine violin, a carved piano leg, an exquisite jewelry box, and Indian canoe, each built for a “noble purpose.” But, think of what the piece of wood has been through to get to the place of beauty and purpose. Can you see the floor under the carpenter’s bench, full of sawdust and wood shavings? The wood has gone through a complete transformation under the artistic hands of the master carpenter. He has cut out imperfections, chiseled away knots, and rubbed down and smoothed every inch to get rid of splinters. He has covered the piece with a carefully chosen finish.

We Christians resemble a piece of wood, carved and sanded by our Master. Theologians call this process “sanctification.” God sanctifies—or “makes holy”—those of us whom He has already called and justified. He has chosen us, not because of something He sees in us, but because He wants to fashion an instrument for His use out of our rough origins.

The process of sanctification, like the work of a carpenter, appears to us as torment and distress. Sometimes we think God has left more “shavings” on the floor than He has left the remainder of us to use. But, He understands the process much better than we, and can see the finished product: an instrument for noble purposes—His purposes.

Trusting Him in this lifelong process of sanctification, and co-operating with His means to get us there, will yield for Him the person He wants us to be. He will use us in noble and in ordinary ways to glorify Him, our Master Carpenter.

 

 

Trees

 

The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, “The Lord is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

—Psalm 92:12-15

I love trees. I always have. I remember as a child lying in the grass under the huge maple in our front lawn and watching the leaves dance under the blue sky. As a teacher, I admired a line of trees that I observed every day on my way to school. I enjoy looking at the various shapes of trees, and marveling at the “perfect” contour of some of them.

As noted in the passage of Scripture at the beginning of this blog post, Psalmists particularly like the image of the tree in their poetry. In addition, the Book of Genesis speaks of two very important trees (Genesis 2:9). And, the Book of Revelation describes the River of Life in the Heavenly Kingdom with the Tree of Life on either side of the river yielding fruit. (Revelation 22:1-2).

In some places we are referred to as “oaks of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:3). But, in the passage of Scripture at the beginning of this blog post, the righteous in Christ are likened to a palm tree. These trees are graceful and erect, standing like sentinels.

We are also compared to cedars of Lebanon. These trees exhibit strength and majesty, and of course, fragrance. Both the palm tree and the cedar tree are planted—established—in the house of the Lord. What an honored place of protection.

I love the part that says they will still bear fruit in old age, fresh and green. No craggy, dried up, fruitless boughs here! They still declare that the Lord is upright, a Rock, with no wickedness in Him. They still praise Him to all, whether verbally, or in the strength of grace that keeps them still tall and valuable to the King.

This week, let us notice the trees. Wonder at the age and glory of each one, the unique fruit, the leaves, the beauty they possess. May they remind us of our Christian sisters and brothers of all ages, and the importance they carry in Christ’s Kingdom.

 

 

God: the Mosaic Artist

 

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.”

—1 Peter 1:6 AKJV (emphasis added)

“As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”

—1 Peter 4:10 AKJV (emphasis added)

“O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.”

—Psalm 104:24 AKJV (emphasis added)

Someone once told me that in the Bible the word “manifold” means “many-colored.” Having never studied Hebrew or Koine Greek, I can only assume that this defnition is correct. But, it has often made me consider the beautiful way in which God artfully uses His grace to meet the various—or manifold—needs and trials of His people.

God perfomes very much as a mosaic artist, who chooses exquisite tiny tiles that He can see as He works. God can also envision the full masterpiece and how all those tiles fit together. He chooses the crystalline white stones that glint and shine with the light. He chooses the colorful clays that catch the eye and make us happy. He chooses bright turquoise, the brilliant reds, the sparkling purples, and the rich greens. He also chooses the inky black tiles that set off the other colored tiles, in order to lend variety and luxuriant contrast to the whole mosaic picture.

He sees the objects created by these various tiles in the picture that we never see—even though we may get just a hint of them in our lifetimes. But certainly, God envisions the total picture for which we have no eyesight, and He plans a masterpiece made from the pieces of our lives: manifold graces for the manifold trials. As 1 Corinthians 13:12 states:

Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

We can be thankful that God will sometimes allow us to see the intricate work of His loving hands, as He makes something beautiful out of our confusing and seemingly helter-skelter experiences of this life. Once we graduate to heaven at the end of our lives here on earth, I can’t wait to see the many mosaics of the lives of the many believers gathered there. Then, each of us will see the artwork God is creating now, and we will surely adore the Artist, as we view His workmanship in the most magnificent gallery ever!

 

 

Harrowing Predicaments

 

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

—2 Chronicles 20:12

On November 12, 2014, two window washers became trapped 68 floors up at One World Trade Center in New York City, when their scaffolding came loose. We hear of such events because they rarely happen: a person’s parachute doesn’t open; a trapeze artist dies from a fall because he had no net beneath him; a bridge collapses, plunging cars to the river below; or other such terrible events.

We humans try to cover all eventualities, to make sure we are never caught without the help we need in any situation. We live in a country with regulations for every “worst-case scenario.” We use seat belts in our vehicles, have smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors in our homes, receive weather alerts, equip our boats with life preservers, fly on planes with all the safety technology available: all to keep people safe in an emergency.

Regardless of the lengths to which we go in order to avoid trouble, we can’t avoid it entirely. We must deal with scary diseases, horrible accidents, injuries from war, and a host of other maladies outside of our control. We need reminding of how many times in Scripture we read the words: “Do not fear” or “Be not afraid.” Nearly every Book in our Bibles has something to say about fear in the face of overwhelming odds.

We can’t get ourselves out of serious trouble any more than those window washers could save themselves. We must learn to trust in a God who has promised to care for us, and who will show us goodness and mercy every day of our lives. This bare-knuckled kind of faith comes to us hard, and only through severe adversity. It tests our dependence on God, as well as His ability to help us.

In a book of Puritan devotional readings, I came upon this paragraph by Thomas Lye: ¹

Faith is the antidote and healer of all diseases. It allows a believer to live in the midst of death. God has extraordinary means to bear us up when ordinary ones fail. He can turn poisons into antidotes, hindrances into furtherances, and destructions into deliverances. The ravens give Elijah food. A whale becomes Jonah’s ship, and pilot too. An Almighty God can work without means. God often brings his people into such a condition that they do not know what to do. He does this that they might know what he can do. God is with his people at all times, but he is most sweetly with them in the worst of times.

God can speak peace to us in the midst of terrible circumstances. He can bring help from strange places. Quite often, those things we often fear never happen, or come in a different form than we expect, so that we are able to bear them. Hear God say, “Trust me in this. I love you!” and experience His peace that passes all understanding.

______________________

1 Lye, Thomas. In Richard Rushing (Ed.) Puritan Sermons in Voices from the Past. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2009. p. 185.