When What I Want & What God Wants Collides

I listened (4 times) to another awesome awesome awesome sermon. I say that about every one I listen to, I know. This is another one by Tim Dilana from Brooklyn Tabernacle. And, these posts don’t do them justice, you must go listen. So good!

Then King David rose to his feet and said: “Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the foot stool of our God, and I made preparations for building. But God said to me, ‘You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood.’Yet the Lord God of Israel chose me from all my father’s house to be king over Israel forever. For he chose Judah as leader, and in the house of Judah my father’s house, and among my father’s sons he took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel. And of all my sons (for the Lord has given me many sons) he has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, ‘It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues strong in keeping my commandments and my rules, as he is today.’ 1 Chronicles 28:2-7

These verses take place at the end of David’s life. David gathered all the decision makers together and humbled himself to share his story of collision between him and God. David shared with the leaders that he had intended and prepared to build a house, but God responded with “no”. The verse that follows after God responded “no” starts with “But God said”. God had different plans for David and told David that instead of him building the house it would be Solomon. So, David intended and prepared, but God led him down a different path. Isn’t no one of the hardest words to hear?  How did David respond to this? In verse 4, David reports to the leaders that God chose Him to be King. He recognizes that He was the chosen one. He doesn’t focus on the closed door, but still recognizes that despite it wasn’t the answer he wanted, God is still good and still blessed him. Instead of complaining, David recounts the blessing of God.

Can we handle it when God tell us no? How will we react when God says no to us and it looks like He is saying yes to everyone around us? We see others having babies, others get promotions, others get nice new houses, yet He keeps shutting the door to our desires and requests.

This goes all the way back from the first fall of man – Adam and Eve. They were told they could eat from any tree of the garden, except one. The enemy took their attention off the millions of trees they could touch and focused on the one tree they couldn’t touch. The one thing God said no to, overtook the millions of other blessings that God said yes to. We forget what He has done for us, because we focus on the one thing He hasn’t done for us. When in reality, the only reason He says no is because He has better plans for us.

It’s clear that when we seek God wholeheartedly,  He will close doors. But, as many times as He says no, it won’t even compare to the amount of times He tells us yes. We must have an attitude and perspective like David. When God closes doors, we need to praise Him. What if we asked “why me”? every time God blesses us, instead of only asking “why me”? every time He says no? We shouldn’t blame Him for the bad things, but instead give Him glory for the good things.

We do not know what lies ahead for us on our infertility journey, but looking back we know that for now, God has already said no. Of course, we hope and pray it’s just a timing issue, but while we wait, we won’t respond with anger, doubt, or “why us?”, but we will continue to praise Him. We will try to maintain having an attitude similar to David’s and recount all the blessings He has said yes too.