Yes, no, or wait.

[throwingbones]

I always here Christians saying that God answers our prayers with a "yes, no, or wait."

First of all, doesn't that limit God?

Second of all, what if God is refusing to answer at all. What if He doesn't want to get involved in that area of your life? What if you are praying for a spouse and God has already said, in the Bible, that it's better to remain unmarried (I Corinthians 7:38) but it's okay to get married to whoever you want so long as they are Christian (I Corinthians 7:39). What if He's leaving the decision completely up to you and He's already said all that He's going to say (in the Bible)? If we have the freedom to marry any believer we want, can we ask God to get involved?

In Luke 12, a man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide his inheritance with him, and Jesus would have nothing to do with it.

 

[boilerblues]

God is interested in every part of our lives, especially who we are in deep relationship with. While Paul says that it's better to remain single, other passages show that a Godly wife is a gift from God. I think Paul made the statment because in the calling that God had for him it was better to remain single, he was very transient and had a hard life. Having a wife may have kept him from that. But in a local church, I think it's a great asset for lay leaders to be married.

Remember that God gave us marriage as a model for how Christ loves the Church. I think based on that God given analogy I know that God has a great deal of interest in who we enter into that relationship with.

There has to be a careful balance between trusting God for our future spouse and also being proactive ourselves. Both have to be a part of it. We'll never find a spouse if we lock ourselves in a cave, but we'll make a bad decision on a spouse if we leave God out of the decision. What we have to do is trust God and seek Him so that our heart and our desires conform to His heart and His desires, then we are able to walk in the Spirit instead of the flesh and make good decisions with our God given heart and desires on who we pursue a relationship with.

 

[fishstix]

I always here Christians saying that God answers our prayers with a "yes, no, or wait."

First of all, doesn't that limit God?

Second of all, what if God is refusing to answer at all. What if He doesn't want to get involved in that area of your life? What if you are praying for a spouse and God has already said, in the Bible, that it's better to remain unmarried (I Corinthians 7:38) but it's okay to get married to whoever you want so long as they are Christian (I Corinthians 7:39). What if He's leaving the decision completely up to you and He's already said all that He's going to say (in the Bible)? If we have the freedom to marry any believer we want, can we ask God to get involved?

In Luke 12, a man asks Jesus to tell his brother to divide his inheritance with him, and Jesus would have nothing to do with it.

The whole "yes, no, or wait" is indeed a human way of looking at and simplifying things. I don't know that God would refuse to answer at all, but even if that was the case, if you think about a refusal to answer really would be a sort of an answer. Like you said, it could mean "I've already answered - read the Bible" or "It's up to you", or numerous other things. One of my English teachers once told the class, "You can't not communicate". Even refusing to say anything is communicating as there is more to communicating than just words.

God has given us a lot of freedom. And that includes the freedom to ask God anything we like. He in turn has the freedom to answer in any way He likes. So sure we can ask God to get involved in any part of our lives. We can't order Him to do anything, that would be extremely presumptuous on our part. We can't even order Him to keep us alive for another moment. But we have the freedom to ask and we can be confident that his response will be perfect. Keep in mind of course that our idea of perfection is flawed - God knows best what the perfect response really is - yes, no, wait, or perhaps something else.

As far as who to marry goes, asking God to be involved in the decision means different things to different people. Some people think that means that they don't have to do anything and one day God will just drop a spouse in front of them with a big flashing sign letting them know that this is the one. Other people think it means that they will work together with God in finding that one. Others think that it means that they will eventually be faced with a choice and God will give them guidance in making that choice. Some think that it means letting God choose the type of person they will marry. There are probably dozens of variations on just what people think they mean when they are asking God to be involved in their love life. And I'm sure that God doesn't have a one size fits all reply either.

Another freedom that God has given us is to choose to reject His advice/orders/will. We do have the freedom to do absolutely anything that we physically are able to. Of course we also have to deal with the consequences of the way we use that freedom. And just because something isn't an obvious sin doesn't mean that it is a good choice - eg. choosing to eat a chocolate bar or a cookie rather than an apple or an orange isn't wrong in and of itself, but is it the best choice? The same goes for choosing who to marry. You will likely have the opportunity to choose whether or not to pursue marriage with a number of people. And choosing any specific one of them over another would not be wrong in and of itself, but just because it isn't wrong doesn't mean that it's necessarily the best choice. As God knows which the best choice would be, many Christians ask for His help. But they still have the freedom to reject His advice.

 

[hanaya]

God always answers us. When we think that he's ignoring us, I think it just means, that we aren't really listening. God is involved in every area of your life. I think that especially in this situation, you need to really make sure that you are listening to what God is trying to tell you, because often our emotions get in the way of hearing what he wants to tell us.

 

[chanis]

This is not a limistation of God but simply part of how he responds to some of our prayers, desires, longings...He is very interested in every aspect of your life, that's why the Bible says that we are the apple of His eye, He has every hair on our head numbered...a good passage to read is Psalm 139...God Knows what's best for us and he definitley has a person who will compliment you and who is a "suitable helpmate" just like he had Eve for Adam rest assured he has someone for you unless you've been called to a life of celibacy...But God shows you if that's the case...Boilerblues wrote about being proactive, which I think is key, you can't expect for God to do all the work for you, it takes risk, obviously prayer and trusting in God for that special person...

 

[Thithy]

I would almost say that when you say that

what if God is refusing to answer at all. What if He doesn't want to get involved in that area of your life?

I think that is limiting God. He wants to be involved in all aspects of our lives.

I don't think that the "yes, no or wait" answers limit God. Just because he says no, doesn't mean he can't give to us what we ask for. It just means that he doesn't feel that it's right for us to have. ie, the little kid that prays to God for a puppy. Well that might not be best in your life at the moment. And if God "doesn't" answer or prayers because he's already told us, he answers us again by showing us when he already answered that question.

 

[throwingbones]

I'm not saying that I feel this way, I was just questioning it having just read Luke 12 and I probably would have worded it a bit different but I was in a hurry to get somewhere.

 

[loved]

I believe that God had our best interest at heart.

If we prayed for GOD to kill a man for us, whats he gonna say? "sure no problem", Of course not.

Also if we pray, for a ridiculous ammount of money, but God knows that we can't look after that ammount of money, then He'll say, "not yet"
and that kind of thing .

 

[BubblesRelena]

Haven't you ever heard of "some of God's greatest gifts, are unanswered prayers"? It's a song by garth brooks, but it has a lot of truth in it. You should listen to it sometimes.

~BubblesRelena

 

[MagicStar723]

He answers, just sometimes we aren't listening or it takes us awhile to get it.

 

[FaithfulServant]

What if He doesn't want to get involved in that area of your life? .

God wants to be involved in EVERY area of your life. I don't know how anyone could ever rationalize scripture to say that He doesn't.