God Never Says No

I wholeheartedly believe that God never straight-up tells us "no". You probably disagree with me. Let me state my case first.

When I was 7 years old, I really wanted a pet cheetah. Surprisingly enough, that didn't happen for me.

When I graduated high school, I wanted to go into the FBI. I'm now a special needs teacher en route to being a speech therapist.

Just last year, I wanted to marry a certain boy. We haven't spoken in almost a year.

God is so faithful to wreck your plans before they wreck you.

Still not catching on? Let me expand.

God has three answers to prayer (at least in my life thus far). You will only hear these three things from God:

1. "Yes."

2. "Not right now."

3. "I have something better in mind."

You see, when I think of God saying no, I get a rather unsavory picture in my mind. I see a dramatically tall, Gandalf-like man shoving a finger in my face and saying, "NO!"

The word "no" has such a negative connotation. I would think that the God that is composed of positivity probably doesn't want to be associated with negativity.

You say, "Seriously, Shelby. Isn't 'Not right now' the equivalent to saying 'No'?" Well.... you got me. TECHNICALLY, that would be God saying no. BUT, just have an open mind for one second.

The word "no" carries zero substance. It seems to have little to no hope for the future. The phrase "not right now" implies that there is a confident expectation. I don't know about you, but I prefer to have at least a speck of hope when looking into my indefinite future.

When things don't go the way we want or situations don't have the outcome we anticipated, we resort to shaking our fists at God and demanding a reason. Could we possibly stop and consider that maybe the very thing we were trying to cling to was the thing God was trying to protect us from? God refrains from saying no because He wants to preserve our happiness. He doesn't keep people and plans from us just to taunt us. Like a quality parent, He is doing it out of love.

If you get a "Yes" to your prayer, congrats! If you get a "Not right now", hold out and be patient. Especially pertaining to relationships. God is just preparing your blessing so that it can be better for you down the road. Pray over it, the time will come that God gives it to you, but a drastically better version of whatever it is. If you get a "I have something better in mind", well... that answers itself. The blessing will make up for the loss.

I know my beginning examples were both funny and serious. God said no to getting a pet cheetah. Hindsight, that was probably to protect me from getting devoured by a huge jungle cat.

He had something better in mind for my career path and, honestly, He probably has that same answer for the relationship example I gave. God saved me from a toxic, abusive relationship. I know the divine arrangement down the road will be tenfold better than the mistake in the past.

The point of this? Please don't ever think that God is telling you no. I promise there is more going on behind the scenes that you cannot see at the moment.