Sometimes, God says, “no.”

I love coming up with really good plans.

Whether it’s been for callings at church, my next career move, or ideas for how to help my child, I think of a lot of stuff.

And sometimes, God says, “no” to my carefully crafted plans.

Paul experienced this, too.

Paul really wanted to travel to certain areas to share the gospel. ⁣

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7)

His desire was perfectly righteous!

And it made logical sense for them to preach to the people in Bithynia as they travelled, too.

Maybe Paul had travel arrangements or contacts there to make it super convenient.

But he prayed, and the Spirit told him, “no.” ⁣

For me, “no” answers usually come with stupors of thought.

I feel like the next step is not available to me.

Or I feel “off” as I pray about it. ⁣

It takes a lot of faith to NOT go through with something we want to do.

And then the trickiest part of all?

Usually the promptings for what we should do instead do not come until we have shown the faith not to go down the first path. ⁣

I’ve known that an idea I was really excited about was no longer right.

But it wasn’t until I took actual steps away from that first idea that the much better, much more powerful second idea came into focus.

It took a LOT of humility.

But I think that’s the point.

Slowly removing that pride, layer by layer.

It takes faith to align our will with God and accept that His “no” will bring the greatest future imaginable.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black

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