20 Quotes from my Latest Book
Taking No for an Answer: How to Respond When God Says No to Our Prayers
Our town dealt with tornado warnings for most of the afternoon on Monday, so I didn’t have much time to write. So, since I have many new subscribers (thank you!), I thought I remind everyone that I have a book out that was published two years ago. (And I have a devotional coming soon that I will share more details on another day).
Do you struggle with unanswered prayer? Are you tired of God telling you no? Is the agony of God not answering your prayers how you’d like causing you to lose trust in Him?
In my book Taking No for an Answer: How to Respond When God Says No to Our Prayers, I cover several different ways in which we should respond to unanswered prayer—God telling us “no.”
If you haven’t purchased it, below are 20 quotes that perhaps will compel you to make a better decision. ;)
1. “So, Christian, do you have room in your theology for unanswered prayer? Do we understand God does, in fact, say no to many of our prayers? Even our earnest and heartfelt ones? Even the ones that sound too spiritual not to be answered with a resounding yes? Or do our prayers resemble more of a wish to a genie than a prayer to a sovereign God?” – pg. 21
2. “God wants a simple, childlike trust from his children. And he wants this trust not with blind eyes but with a believing heart.” – pg. 21
3. “We have special access to the Father as his children. We can “approach his throne of grace with boldness” (Hebrews 4:16). Boldness does not mean arrogance. Boldness, in this context, is confidence. Not confidence in ourselves, but con- fidence that we’ve been adopted into his family because of the blood of Christ. Jesus’s atonement solidified our unrestricted access to the throne of grace—and we had nothing to do with it (Ephesians 2:8).” – pg. 26
4. “There will be times in life when we are tempted to believe God isn’t there; that he’s not hearing or listening to us. I hope this chapter served as a reminder. It doesn’t matter if your life is collapsing or you are on top of the world. This truth still remains: God hears you, he’s listening to you, and he’s attentive to your prayers.” – pg. 31
5. “Paul knew, despite the Lord telling him no, everything would be fine because God’s grace is sufficient. Sufficient for what? we may ask. Sufficient to hold us up, to keep us going, to push us forward. Sufficient for anything that may come our way in life—whether a thorn in the flesh or a fork in the road.” – pg. 36
6. “Jesus knows our pain because he experienced the worst of it. Jesus knows our tears because he wept over Lazarus ( John 11:35). Jesus knows our heartache because he felt that on the cross when God laid his wrath upon him. And Jesus knows our struggles with unanswered prayer because, as we saw in the garden, his Father said no to him just as he says no to us sometimes.” – pg. 39
7. “Is Christ enough when you can’t seem to find a job that supports your family? Is Christ enough when it feels like everybody is out to get you? Is Christ enough when a loved one died unexpectedly? Is Christ enough when you are on your deathbed? Jesus should be enough for us. Our goal should be able to say this: ‘Even if you don’t rescue me from this trial, I still trust you.’” – pg. 52
8. “Many have parents who are unloving, deadbeat, and couldn’t care less. This is not so with God. God is not a deadbeat, but a Heavenly Father who is always there, always caring, always loving—even when he says no. God tells us no to stretch our faith, to point us to something bigger. Oftentimes God’s no simply means he wants us to rest satisfied in him.” – pg. 53
9. “God, as our sovereign, good, holy Father, reserves the right to distinguish between what we want and need. But we shouldn’t think he is abandoning us if he doesn’t answer our wishes.” – pg. 57
10. “In a culture of discontentment, complaining, and mur-muring, God calls us to contentment, to satisfaction, to being happy with where God has us. And why can we be content? Because we have God.” – pg. 61
11. “Sin can creep up in the oddest places—even prayer—if we’re not paying attention.” – pg. 68
12. “But when we keep praying—even amid a clear no from God—we reveal a sense of stubbornness, a stench of sin. We want something so bad that we’re going to keep asking, even when God has made himself abundantly clear.” – pg. 71
13. “God honors persistent prayer. He is pleased when his children come to him again and again to ask for things.” – pg. 79
14. “Unanswered prayer—whatever it’s for—is always discouraging. But sometimes, even when he says no, he invites us to continue asking, continue pleading, continue seeking. God loves to listen to the persistent, faithful, believing cries of his children.” – pg. 85
15. “This is a sign of genuine faith. No matter the difficulty— even via unanswered prayer—we push on forward. We lean into him. We keep marching toward him by faith because we know what Scripture says and we know how fickle our emo- tions can be. We rely on the unbreakable foundation of the Bible rather than the uneasy waves of our feelings.” – pg. 88
16. “When our prayers go unanswered, it ought to be a wake- up call to dive back into the means of grace God has mercifully provided for us. One of those means of grace is the local church.” – pg. 92
17. “Every breath we take is a gift from God. From our first cry as an infant to our final breath, all of life is given from the gracious hands of our Father.” – pg. 96
18. “Unanswered prayer is going to happen, and it’s going to happen more often than we’d like. Why? Because more often than not, we either pray for the wrong things, need to be patient, or something in between. And when we are faced with God telling us no, we should remind ourselves of redemption, of the cross, of the empty tomb, and be thankful.” – pg. 102
19. “When we are impatient, it is a signal that we aren’t truly trusting in God’s plan and timing.” – pg. 102
20. “Believer, I don’t want you—or any of us—to simply know about God. I want us to know God. Knowing about God like you know the stats of your favorite athlete or how many Oscars your favorite actor has won will do you no good in the end. We must know God like we know our spouse or a beloved family member. We must know with affection—and we can’t know with affection until we study him!” – pg. 111