Life seems fine and exciting when we receive the answers we want to all our requests. This three-lettered word “YES” makes the world around us nice and exciting. When a young man asks a lady for her hand in marriage, he wants to hear this three-lettered word. When a child asks his/her parents for something, he/she wants to hear “YES” you can.

We as Christians put forward various requests to our Father in heaven and of course, we want to hear this word YES. That way, we feel our prayers are answered, and we praise Him and testify to His goodness and we love Him more. We all love positive responses as it feels good and it makes us feel happy and satisfied.

However, have you ever stopped to think of other positive answers that are not usually accepted as positive, for example, wait or what I call the two lettered word “NO”. Like any good parent, YES is not always the best answer all the time, otherwise, you may bring up a spoilt child or run the risk of pampering the child if he/she has his/ her way all the time.

So also our loving Father in heaven loves us and wants us to grow and be spiritually strong. So sometimes He says NO. What do you do then? Will you praise Him and testify and be happy?

In the beginning, when God created the world, we can imagine Adam and Eve saying “Can we eat of all the trees in the garden”, but God said: “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.” Genesis 3:3

This was the first” NO” from God but they disobeyed Him. We can see what has happened to mankind – sin and sorrow, disease and death and the earth was cursed.

“And unto Adam, He said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt, thou eat of it all the days of thy life;” Genesis 3:17

When Jesus prayed at the Garden of Gethsemane He asked God to take this cup from Him. Imagine if God had said “YES”. We would have all perished. But because God said “NO”, Jesus died on that shameful cross; the result was the wonderful grace of salvation offered to you and me.

Another example is when David besought God for the child; David fasted, and went in, and lay all night upon the earth but God said NO and the child died. Let us learn from what David did after this. He rose up, washed himself, ate and went to the house of God and worshipped and was happy. Here David accepted the answer NO and submitted to God’s will. It is sometimes difficult but as we begin to know God more and accept that He knows what is best for us, life becomes easier. Later Solomon was born this is what God had to say about him.

“But a son will be born to you; he will be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies, for his name will be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel during his reign.” I Chronicles 22:9

Just as a parent would not allow his child to have things that will harm or hurt him, God, as a loving Father knows what is good for us. God knows that by saying No to some of our requests we would grow up to be better children and that we would learn some good lessons that will prepare us for heaven and make us strong Christians, ready to fight the good fight of faith.