Aren’t you glad God sometimes says “no”?

I don’t mean in the moment that we’re asking for something–when we’re fixated on something we desperately want, we never want Him to tell us “no.”

What I’m talking about are the other times, those times when hindsight or maturity gives us a wiser understanding and we realize that we actually don’t need some of the things we thought we couldn’t live without.

Every good parent understands that sometimes thwarting a child’s wish is the greater mercy, the greater act of love.

They understand that a “no” is sometimes better; it’s a “yes” in disguise.

One of my friends and mentors says it another way. He says that God only has four answers to our prayers:

No, I love you too much.

No, no yet.

Yes, I was waiting for you to ask.

Yes, more than you could ever imagine.

When I review the landscape of my life I can clearly see times when it was His love that told me “no.” I’ve yearned for some things that might have ruined me if God had let me have my way.

His timing is best. His wisdom is never wrong. And even when He’s thwarting us, He’s doing it for our ultimate good.

So stay persistent in your prayers. The process of prevailing in prayer will transform you from the inside out. And when it’s all said and done, you will find that His answer to you was either a “yes” or it was a “yes” in disguise.