When God Says No
Have you ever prayed for a green light from God but got a horizontal head shake instead? Mathew 7:7 says “Ask and it will be given to you”, but what about when God says no? How do you move on when you feel like a door was just slammed in your face?
Since March of this year, my husband has been in an interview process with a very well-known company. It started with a recruiter reaching out to him, then moved into a series of phone & panel interviews. Most companies tell you rather quickly if you’ve made the cut or not. This company preferred to leave us hanging on a cliff for 2-3 weeks at a time between each interview.
To say that it tested our faith & endurance is an understatement. In the midst of all of the interviews, my husband still had his current job to tend to. Being in a position of authority, situations where his attention was needed were constantly arising. To top it off, he was put in charge of the entire district of 15 stores while the boss was on vacation…twice!
It all began to feel like a roller coaster. We were told the job prospect would add $20,000 a year to our finances…something we could really use with being a one income family. This was a blessing we were eagerly praying for! The downside was that the job would have him commuting over an hour & a half every day, meaning fractionated family time. He would also be in a different management structure where his boss would be in the store with him, something that felt like a backwards move. We knew we needed to seek God’s discernment more than ever!
As we began to pray together in order to seek God’s will for our family, we started to see that He wanted us to be still…standing firm in our faith. Just because this opportunity presented itself didn’t mean that God wanted us to jump on board. We know to put God first, family second, & finances in the rear. Sometimes we all just need that reminder in the midst of striving out of a struggle! It was suddenly obvious that the enemy could be trying to attack our priorities.
For months, we had been eagerly poised to walk through a door of opportunity. Suddenly & not subtly, God slammed the door. When the call came that my husband would not be getting the job, it all came into focus. The position they were interviewing him for the whole time was one he would’ve never accepted, had they been upfront about the title and functions with him. Where the company had been vague and mysterious, God was being direct and transparent. This was not His plan.
So how do we pick up and move on from here? How do you recover from a slammed door in your life…a failed relationship, career opportunity, miscarriage, death of a loved one? Let’s take a closer look at Mathew 7:7– “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (ESV)
Now look at the New Living Translation:
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”
In other words, don’t give up! God is saying “Trust me! I’ve got this…and when the time is right, that door is going to swing open for you.” And just to show how much He understands what it’s like to wait, He gives us this illustration in Revelation 3:20:
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”
Maybe you’ve slammed the door in God’s face before…maybe you’re doing it in some area of your life right now while He’s knocking, just waiting for you to open your heart.
Friends, I want to encourage you. You don’t have to shut God out & live in a room of bitterness, loneliness, or go on letting the enemy make you believe that God’s shutting you off from His blessings.
A-Acknowledge that He is sovereign
S-Seek His will
K-Know He’s working all things for your good (Romans 8:28)
Keep on Keeping on!
May His face shine on each of you,
Amber