When The Answer Is No - A Minute of Presence for Women
When the Answer Is No
The funny thing about no is that it never gets any easier to hear. I wasn’t fond of it when I was seven or eleven or twenty-one. And I don’t like it any better today. I learned early on to ask politely and to direct my request to the one who was most able (and likely) to grant it. I said, “May I please,” and I said it to the parent I thought might answer yes. I learned there’s a fine line between persistence and annoyance. And I walked it like a tightrope.
I’ve been hearing no a lot lately. If I didn’t know better, I’d think vandals had stripped God’s messaging system of its full alphabet—his yeses have been few and far between. I don’t believe my requests have been unreasonable or even selfish as far as I’ve been able to discern. And I’ve asked respectfully, and as often as I dare. I’ve offered up to God what Spurgeon called “order and argument in prayer,” and I’ve prayed believing that the things I’ve asked are well within God’s power. I still believe it. And I’m still hearing no.
When I heard it over and over as a kid, I eventually relented. I moved on. I abandoned my unmet requests and began to focus my desires elsewhere. That doesn’t work anymore. There are some desires that, for whatever reason, you simply cannot abandon, even when holding on to them hurts more than ditching them might. And the one who hears my requests these days cannot be easily abandoned or ignored. I need him too much, and I love him too deeply for that.
Even when he tells me no, it’s him I want, him I trust, him I bring my wants and hopes and needs to. Because whether the answer is yes or no, he is the one I want to hear it from. And in case you’re wondering, I’m still asking. And unless or until you hear otherwise from him, I think you should be too.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7, NASB
