What If God Says No?


Have you ever wanted something so badly that you can’t imagine not
getting it? What you wanted was so good and so right that you
confidently prayed for it, sure that God would give it to you? And then
he didn’t?

Jesus knows exactly how you feel. Hebrews 5:7 says, “During the days
of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent
cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was
heard because of his reverent submission.”

Jesus begged his Father to save him from the cross. He begged him
throughout his life, until the night he was arrested. “Father, if you are
willing, take this cup from me” (Luke 22:42).

There has never been a purer prayer. Never been a prayer that God
didn’t yearn to answer more. But God knew that Jesus’ crucifixion was
necessary for us to be saved. So he sadly answered No.

Thank God for unanswered prayer! Our salvation depends on it. If God
had said Yes to every deserving prayer, you and I would be headed for
hell.

We don’t have to like it when God says No. Jesus tells us to keep asking,
seeking, and knocking until we get what we need. But we can trust the
God who said No to his beloved Son, for us. God’s No is another name
for love..

 

Helpful Additional Resources

Coming soon

About You

Most websites have an “About” page that tells you something about the owner. We have one too, and we invite you to check it out.

But we thought it would also be a good thing if we gave you an “About” page of your own. After all, you’re the reason this site exists. We mean that 100 percent. So why not have an “About You” page.

But, well, how?

We’ve never met, so how could we know anything about you?
Your story. Your circumstances.
Your strengths, struggles, and achievements.
The things that make you happy, proud, ashamed,
that piss you off, that break your heart.

We don’t know your age, social status, spiritual beliefs, or political convictions, who your friends are, where you live, whether you’re a man or a woman or pondering the question.

We don’t know what’s been done to you or what you’ve done to others.

Are you black, brown, white, pink, or some weird combination of too much sun and too little sun screen? We can’t tell—how could we?

But here are three things about you that we do know.

  • You live in the same world as us. You know it’s busted. You’ve seen it for yourself, felt the wounds and the hardness and maybe the hopelessness. How could there could be so much love and lovelessness, so much beauty and ugliness, all side by side on the same planet—and even (be real, now) inside you?
  • You are somebody special—unique, gifted, full of promise and potential, designed to find meaning and made to be loved and to love. Your heart longs to experience these things. Maybe you feel it, maybe you don’t, but either way, it’s the truth.

What if there are two truths? One is worse than you know and the other far, far better than you ever imagined. And what if that better truth is the one you are created for?

  • You are loved by God. Deeply loved, not cheaply loved. Loved in a way you can trust because it’s the real thing, not a fake that drops you, breaks you, and leaves you feeling like you’ll never be enough.

Picture this: God is pursuing you like a treasure hunter searches after treasure. He always has been. He wants you—the real you, all of you, the best of you and the worst of you. He wants to help you become the most of you, the freest of you, the you that you wish you could be. Because who you really are is someone God loves with a passion, right now, right where you are.

That’s what we know about you, and that’s what we know about God.

God’s love is the kind that truly can change a person’s life. We know because it has changed ours, and it’s still doing so. That love is what the rest of this site is here to help you explore.

We hope you’ll be . . . what? Interested. Yes, interested and intrigued. Challenged. Encouraged. Informed, guided, and even inspired.

And above all, that you’ll feel welcome to just be you.