_*When God Says No*_

*There hath not failed one word of all his good promise* (1 Kgs -  8:56)

Some day we shall understand that God has a reason in every NO which He speaks through the slow movement of life. “Somehow God makes up to us.” How often, when His people are worrying and perplexing themselves about their prayers not being answered, is God answering them in a far richer way! Glimpses of this we see occasionally, but the full revelation of it remains for the future.

“If God says ’Yes’ to our prayer, dear heart,  

And the sunlight is golden, the sky is blue,  

While the smooth road beckons to me and you,  

And the song-birds warble as on we go,  

Pausing to gather the buds at our feet,  

Stopping to drink of the streamlets we meet,  

Happy, more happy, our journey will grow,  

If God says ’Yes’ to our prayer, dear heart.  

“If God says ’No’ to our prayer, dear heart,  

And the clouds hang heavy and dull and gray;  

If the rough rocks hinder and block the way,  

While the sharp winds pierce us and sting with cold;  

Ah, dear, there is home at the journey’s end,  

And these are the trials the Father doth send  

To draw us as sheep to His Heavenly fold,  

If God says ’No’ to our prayer, dear heart.”  

Oh for the faith that does not make haste, but waits patiently for the Lord, waits for the explanation that shall come in the end, at the revelation of Jesus Christ! When did God take anything from a man, without giving him manifold more in return? Suppose that the return had not been made immediately manifest, what then? Is today the limit of God’s working time? Has He no provinces beyond this little world? Does the door of the grave open upon nothing but infinite darkness and eternal silence ?

Yet, even confining the judgment within the hour of this life, it is true that God never touches the heart with a trial without intending to bring upon it some grander gift, some tenderer benediction. He has attained to an eminent degree of Christian grace who knows how to wait. —Selected

When the frosts are in the valley,  

And the mountain tops are grey,  

And the choicest buds are blighted,  

And the blossoms die away,  

A loving Father whispers,  

“This cometh from my hand”;  

Blessed are ye if ye trust  

Where ye cannot understand.  

If, after years of toiling,  

Your wealth should fly away  

And leave your hands all empty,  

And your locks are turning grey,  

Remember then your Father  

Owns all the sea and land;  

Blessed are ye if ye trust  

Where ye cannot understand.  

—Selected

Believing Prayer

Peter was kept in prison: but prayer [instant and earnest prayer] was made for him     (Acts - 12:5)

Peter was in prison awaiting his execution. The Church had neither human power nor influence to save him. There was no earthly help, but there was help to be obtained by the way of Heaven. They gave themselves to fervent, importunate prayer. God sent His angel, who aroused Peter from sleep and led him out through the first and second wards of the prison; and when they came to the iron gate, it opened to them of its own accord, and Peter was free.

There may be some iron gate in your life that has blocked your way. Like a caged bird you have often beaten against the bars, but instead of helping, you have only had to fall back tired, exhausted and sore at heart. There is a secret for you to learn, and that is believing prayer; and when you come to the iron gate, it will open of its own accord. How much wasted energy and sore disappointment will be saved if you will learn to pray as did the Church in the upper room! Insurmountable difficulties will disappear; adverse circumstances will prove favorable if you learn to pray, not with your own faith but with the faith of God (Mark 11:22, margin). Souls in prison have been waiting for years for the gate to open; loved ones out of Christ, bound by Satan, will be set free when you pray till you definitely believe God. —C. H. P.

Emergencies call for intense prayer. When the man becomes the prayer nothing can resist its touch. Elijah on Carmel, bowed down on the ground, with his face between his knees, that was prayer—the man himself. No words are mentioned. Prayer can be too tense for words. The man’s whole being was in touch with God, and was set with God against the powers of evil. They couldn’t withstand such praying. There’s more of this embodied praying needed. —The Bent-knee Time

“Groanings which cannot be uttered are often prayers which cannot be refused.” —C. H. Spurgeon

Appropriating Faith

Arise ... for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good; and are ye still? Be not slothful to go, and enter to possess the land: for God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of anything that is in the earth   ( Judg -  18:9-10)

Arise! Then there is something definite for us to do. Nothing is ours unless we take it. “The children of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim, took their inheritance” (Joshua 16:4). “The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions” (Obad. 17). “The upright shall have good things in possession.”

We need to have appropriating faith in regard to God’s promises. We must make God’s Word our own personal possession. A child was asked once what appropriating faith was, and the answer was, “It is taking a pencil and underscoring all the ME’s and mine’s and may’s in the Bible.”

Take any word you please that He has spoken and say, “That word is my word.” Put your finger on this promise and say, “It is mine.” How much of the Word has been endorsed and receipted and said “It is done.” How many promises can you subscribe and say, “Fulfilled to me.”

“Son, thou art ever with Me, and all that I have is thine.” Don’t let your inheritance go by default.

“When faith goes to market it always takes a basket.”