The Joy of Being Denied

I have been thinking recently, over the past week, in light of recent events in my own life, about the way God works in the lives of His own. Specifically, His denying us of many things that we desire, even if they accord with His revealed will! And two passages of Scripture have come to the forefront of my thinking on this, one which comes from my daily devotions and the other which comes from another Bible study I was involved in.

The first passage is chapters 8 and 9 of 1 Samuel, where, in response to the wickedness and injustice that Samuel’s sons perpetrated as judges over Israel, the people of Israel demand a king to rule over them “like all the nations.” Although it seems like a reasonable request, it does not sit well with Samuel, and he inquires of the Lord, who makes it clear that their request is a sign that they have rejected Him as their King and Sovereign, in order to be like the nations around them, in clear rebellion against His intention that they be separate from the nations. But although He makes it clear through Samuel that the people by making this demand have rejected Him as King over them, He allows them to have a king. He even picks one out for them, choosing a man who the Bible only describes as exceedingly handsome and very tall. No mention is made of Saul’s spiritual fitness to lead the people of God, a fact which foreshadows what would be his downfall, his tendency to disobey God’s direct commands. But God gives the people what they want! Of course this must mean that He has blessed their request! Not so. Fast forward to the end of Saul’s reign. His reign ends with defeat in battle and death on the battlefield by his own hand, which comes after he spends most of the last years of his life pursuing the man whom God has anointed his successor in order to murder him. It would seem that God giving the people what they wanted didn’t turn out to be a good thing. This reminds me of Romans 1, which declares that God gave over to their sinful desires those who rejected Him despite knowing the truth about Him. He gave them what they wanted! If we were to follow the thinking of many people today, even in the church, this would mean that God was blessing them. But obviously this is not the case. So it can be seen that God giving someone what they want can be a sign, not of His blessing, but of the opposite.

The flip side of this is 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, a passage known and loved by many Christians for verse 9, which is Jesus saying to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” But what is the context of this beautiful statement made by our Lord? To see this, we have to go back to verse 7, where, after Paul reluctantly tells of his experience with the Lord receiving revelation directly, he declares that “to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.” There are many disagreements as to the precise nature of the “thorn,” but it was assuredly painful, because, according to John MacArthur, “the Greek word translated ‘thorn’ literally means a stake--a sharpened wooden shaft used to impale or torture someone.” In response to this painful trial, Paul did not complain, but turned to God, asking Him to remove it. Three times he did this, and three times the answer came back no. During or after all this, Jesus came to him and said what was quoted earlier, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” And in response Paul declares “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” See, Paul believed what he later wrote in Romans 8:28-29: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Paul knew that because of God’s love for him as an adopted son, He sovereignly caused ALL things to work towards making Paul more like his Savior, including the pain of the trial. I have known about both of these texts before from my upbringing in the church, but it was not until only recently that I have known the joy that comes from truly believing the truths presented in them, which really means believing in the God who inspired them. Christians, believe these truths, and believe the God behind them! He is indeed good, even when He denies us what we desire!