What do you do when God’s answer is no?
When the thing you’ve been earnestly praying about for two long years finally comes to a close and the final outcome feels devastating?
How do you continue trusting in Almighty God through bitter disappointment?
Tough questions, aren’t they? But they’re questions we all face sooner or later in this mortal life. And although I don’t feel equipped with the right words to express this distressing and often faith-shaking conundrum, I try to be totally real and transparently honest with you, my BFFs (Blessed Friends Forever) with the assumption that we all share similar pinnacles and pits in our faith journeys and can learn from each other. The moments of joy and disillusionment. The jubilant times of arm-flinging praises to El Roi (“The God who sees me,” Genesis 16:13-14) and scathing hours of face-in-the-dirt pleading for mercy from Jehovah Jireh (“The Lord will provide,” Genesis 22:14).
It’s true. We don’t always get what we think we should. Situations don’t go our way and we cannot understand why. The solution we present to Almighty God – repeatedly, with enthusiasm, using common sense, and summoning faux authority as His beloved child – seems totally sensible and biblically sound and custom tailored for us to soon shout our God-powered victories from the rooftops to bring others to faith in Him.
But no. It doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes our preferred solution is bypassed for a different ending that isn’t remotely happy. Or efficient. Or just. Or sensible. Or gracious. Or conducive to our expectations of the abundant life promised to us in John 10:10.
In the real world, sometimes people suffer … physical pain, financial ruin, emotional turmoil. And we beg Papa God for the bleeding to stop. And it will. Eventually. But often not without a rigid toll that must be paid.
When it could have ended so differently. Much less painfully. After all, He’s the Creator of the Universe – can’t He do anything?
And we can’t seem to let go of our disappointment of Him not taking care of us the way we think He should.
As you may discern, I’ve been there recently, in that disappointed place, thinking and praying and reading my Bible and pleading with Papa God for peace about a years-long battle that has finally come to a head in my little world. (I’ll disclose more details when the time is right but in the meantime, these photos of my daughter’s damaged house – next door to ours – after Hurricane Milton is a big hint.)
When the dust finally settled, it didn’t end at all the way I’d hoped. Or prayed. The good guys didn’t win. Justice was not to be had. Tons of hard-earned money was lost. Yet when I look back on my primary prayer during these trying years, it’s consistently been, “Lord, please redeem this ugly situation for your glory.” And I truly believe He’s doing that. It’s just that the redeeming part isn’t visible yet. And it may never be this side of heaven.
Determined to cling to my faith regardless, I turned to my Bible to see how other Christians remained faithful through disappointment.
There was Daniel, who was forcibly taken from his family as a boy to live in a foreign country as a slave. I would think that his disappointment in Yahweh, the great “I AM” of his forefathers was debilitating. Yet Daniel clung to his faith. Then he was tossed into a pit with hungry lions to presumably die for simply praying. Where’s the fairness in that?
Hannah, disappointed through years and years of infertility, ridicule, and mocking by the fertile Myrtles surrounding her probably felt that her prayers to Jehovah bounced off the ceiling. Yet she clung to her faith.
David must’ve been devastated when his own son Absalom turned against him and basically chased David out of his palace to flee for his life. David’s father-heart could not recover. Some of our most heart-touching Psalms are full of David’s sorrow and lament over the betrayal of his beloved son.
And the list goes on. Scads of believers suffered and many had to live (or die) with disappointment in the outcomes. Sometimes the problems were resolved with a happy ending (in the eyes of the sufferers) and sometimes not. It’s one of the mysteries of faith that we must accept. Not necessarily like, but accept.
I’ve concluded that we have no promise or guarantee of happy endings to the myriad of problems we encounter during our time here on earth. In fact, God’s will may not include the outcome we would have chosen, but if we pray diligently and turn the problem over to Him, we must trust that the outcome is what He has chosen. Even if His reasons are hidden … secret.
Which leads me to the wonderful verse that immensely comforts me:
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God (Deut. 29:29 NASB).
The Message translation reads, “GOD, our GOD, will take care of the hidden things.”
Yes. The hidden, secret things (in our perspective) BELONG to Him. He sees them all. He is in control of them. And there’s definitely solace in knowing that. We rejoice in wonderful outcomes when they happen (and heaven knows there are plenty of those!) but we don’t exist just for happy endings. We exist to become more like our heavenly Father and to serve Him. Whatever the outcome.
Even though His reasoning for “no’s” are often mysterious, secret, hidden from our view, we who have given our hearts and lives over to Him choose to believe that the outcome He has orchestrated is indeed His will.
And isn’t that the place we most want to be – in the center of His will? Wherever He chooses for that to be. 
Dearest BFF, won’t you share how you cling to your faith through disappointing outcomes in the comments below?
P.S. If you’ve been kind enough to purchase one of these Boxes of Blessings (only $4.99 on Amazon.com) to share with with those you encounter daily, please take a moment to leave a review on Amazon and post (please tag me!) on your social media hangouts to help get word of these little gems out. Many thanks!