Be Willing to Hear a...No!

‘And while He was still speaking, behold, a multitude; and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. But Jesus said to him. "Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?" When those around Him saw what was going to happen, they said to Him, “Lord, shall we strike with the sword?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear.’ Luke 22:47-50 NKJV In our last issue, we discovered when we ask God a question and don’t receive an answer; that many times, His lack of response is the answer. The fact that He says nothing should be an indicator that we should do nothing. Many times when you don't hear anything from God that could simply mean - NO! And no is a word, none of us like to use or hear. But not only should we be willing to hear no, sometimes we've got to be willing to wait for it.

Take Peter for instance. He asked Jesus, ‘Lord shall we strike?’ and because Jesus didn’t respond as quickly as he felt the situation required; he mistook the Lord’s lack of response for a yes. He misinterpreted the pause. And that’s what many of us do. We ask God if we can have something and when we don’t immediately get an answer, we misinterpret God's silence for ‘go for it’; when it fact, God was politely telling us to sit down somewhere. We pray again and ask Him if we can do something and then we mistakenly think that since we didn't get an immediate peace about it, that maybe He's just making us wait. And that’s true in some instances. But more often than not, what were really waiting on….is a no. But again, you have to be willing to hear even that.

There maybe times when you want something or someone so much, that you repeatedly ask God about it. And that within itself should tell you that if you're having to ask over and over and over again, something's not right! But because you want it or them so badly, you take His silence as, 'Okay, well I did ask Him and He didn’t say no. So....I'm gonna do it!' It’s like when your tween asks to use your car, to go to a frat party, on a school night. Instead of outright telling them no; you look at them sideways and say nothing because you’re so infuriated that they would even put their lips together to even ask such a thing; that instead of using a couple of blankety-blank-blanks, you simply ignore them. And yes, you adult child of God; sometimes, that’s exactly how God responds to you. But instead of tiptoeing out of God’s presence before He pops you in the mouth for asking Him such foolishness; you take His silence to mean ‘Pass me the keys!’

Could your tween tell you they ‘thought you meant they could go’ because you didn’t say anything? Absolutely not! Then as an adult child of God, don’t think that you can either.

Pray this with me: Heavenly Father, please forgive me when I'd already made up my mind about what I was going to do and only asked You because I knew that I should. Lord, thank You for bringing this to my attention; especially today, because there's something that I wanted to do; but now I am willing to truly wait on You; even if You tell me no. In Jesus's name.

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