The other day people were sharing stories of miracles at church and I wanted to stand up and say, "And sometimes God says no." Sometimes the miracle doesn't happen. What then?

When God Says No: 4 Lessons From the Book of Job

1. Hard Things Happen to Good People

The very beginning of the book of Job opens with this verse:

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil.” (Job 1:1)

Then Job's life derailed and fell apart. NOTE: Job’s suffering didn’t come because he was bad, but because he was so faithful to God. (Job 1:8)

2. Friends May Fail Us, But God Never Does

Job’s three friends call him a wicked man and a hypocrite. Finally Job confronts them by saying:

“Miserable comforters are you all!”

“My friends scorn me; but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.” (Job 16:2, 20)

Even his wife tells him to “Curse God, and die.” (Job 2:9)

But he answers her wisely:

“Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10)

Three of my favorite statements from Job are these:

 “Though he slay me, I will hope in him.” (Job 13:15)

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God: Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another.” (Job 19:25-27)

3. Trials Can Be for Our Good

“But he knows the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10)

4. Hope on--Blessings Come Eventually

In the last chapter of Job, he again humbles himself before God with an increased perspective that he should pray for his friends (even though they were unkind to him). Repentance, humility and forgiveness were a great stepping stone for Job. Job’s prayer then released blessings and opened the windows of heaven!

“The Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.. . . So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.” (Job 42:10, 12)

Conclusion

What do you do when God says “no” and you don’t get the miracle you are looking for?

When my two sons were diagnosed with autism no matter how hard I begged, pleaded and prayed the answer was no. I learned these same lessons as Job. 1). No matter how good I was, this challenge was part of my life. 2). That God never failed me--in fact because I was so overwhelmed and weak day in and day out I had to lean heavily on Him to survive. 3). This trial and challenge of autism in my family has been for my good. I have learned so much and am a better person because of it. 4). Blessings have come into my life because of this challenge and I feel blessed and honored to have had God bless me with children who struggle.

#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #Godsaysno #Job #BibleStory #trustGod #trials #challenges #hard times #faith #testimony #JesusChrist

Transcription

You can find the transcription of today's episode here: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/when-god-says-no-4-lessons-from-jobs-story

Have you ever had God tell you No? Maybe it was something that

you were really praying for and you really, really wanted. And

the answer was no--even though it was something that was good.

What do you do then when the miracle you want for you or

someone you love just doesn't happen? If you've ever felt that

way, you are not alone. We are going to cover this challenging

question in a faith filled and hope filled way. Stay tuned.

Welcome to Stories of Hope in Hard Times, the show that

explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult times.

All with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K. Anderson. Join me

on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and wisdom

learned in life's hardest moments.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Tamara's Takeaways in

the Stories of Hope and Hard Times podcast. I'm your host,

Tamara K. Anderson. And today we are tackling a really, really

difficult question. What happens when God says no, and it's

something you really want, and you think it's something that's

good for you or good for someone you love, and you just are

feeling kind of beat up?

Recently at church, we had an important topic to discuss. And

it kind of related around miracles. And one of the

challenging things about having people share stories of miracles

is that people who have had God tell them no, kind of feel like,

well, they are more righteous than I am. And they got their

miracle, and I didn't get mine. And so there must be something

wrong with me.

And that's a really hard place to be. I don't know if you've

ever felt that way. But sometimes when people get up and

share story after story after story of miracles, I almost want

to jump up and say, and then there's times God says no. And

what do you do then? It's not because you're not faithful.

It's not because you're not good. It's not because you're

broken, and God doesn't love you.

And so, to dive into this story, I have personal experience with

God telling me No, and we'll cover a little bit of my story

at the end. But I wanted to dive into the stories of the

scriptures of the Old Testament into the story of Job. Because

he was a super awesome guy. And he had some really hard stuff

come down on him. And so I think his story relates to each of us

that have ever prayed for something, and it didn't work

out. And it didn't happen the way we wanted it to.

Today, we're going to cover four lessons we can learn from the

amazing story of Job of what we can do when God tells us No.

Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to

dive into the book of Job and we're going to learn that he

really is a good person. First verse of the first book of Job,

"There was a man in the Land of Uz. (And I don't know if I'm

saying that right), whose name was Job. And that man was

perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed

evil." So here we have this awesome guy. He loves God. He's

doing everything he can to the best of his ability. God loves

him. He loves God. And he had all this property. He had 1000s

of sheep, camels, oxen, a great household, he had lots of

servants, and he had 10 children.

And all of the sudden, it's like his life unraveled. All of his

children were killed in a windstorm. Marauders, took his

animals, killed his servants. And then he was covered in

boils. Now you can only imagine that he's grieving the loss of

his children. He's grieving the loss of his property. And all of

a sudden he is sick and covered in these super painful boils all

over his body.

First of all, I can't imagine this scenario. I can't imagine

losing all my children and the grief that that alone would

cause me, but then to lose all my to lose my home to lose my

money. Basically, that's what happened to Job. And so some

people might look at him and say like his friends did. Dude, what

did you do wrong?

But I think the important thing to point out here is the first

hard things happen to the People. And the reason these

things happen to Job, we learn in verse eight is not because he

was bad, but because he was so good. So, so very good that he

was going to be tempted. Well, is he going to stay true and

faithful to God, if he doesn't have children if he doesn't have

property if he doesn't have all these things? So sometimes when

God says, No, we're being tested or tempted, or perhaps God is

teaching us what He already knows about us--that we're

faithful, and that we will stay faithful no matter what. I know

that if I give Tamara or Susan or James or Brad, this test,

that they will stay faithful no matter what. And so God knows

that about us. The question is, do we know that about us?

So sometimes I think, God gives us these challenges, because we

need to learn something. And it's because we are good, and

we're doing our best. And He knows that we can be just a

little bit better. So the first lesson to learn is hard things

happen to good people. And just because you don't get the

miracle you prayed for doesn't mean that God doesn't love you

and that you aren't good. It probably means He loves you a

whole bunch. And He has complete confidence in you that you can

get through this, maybe not alone, but with His help.

The second lesson is building off of that last comment that we

can get through things with God's help. And that is the

lesson that friends can sometimes fail us. But God never

does. And bless job, he lost all these things, and then he has

these friends come and they're kind of hanging with them. And

they were not very kind. They're like, Dude, what did you do? You

must be wicked and, and they just start criticizing him and

call them a wicked man and a hypocrite. And Job finally

confronts them and he says, "Miserable comforters Are you

all." You guys are not doing a very good job comforting me.

Basically, is what he is saying. And then he continues, "My

friends scorn me, but mine eye poureth out tears unto God." So

here Job knows he's doing the best he can. His friends are not

being very kind. But he knows that God sees his tears, that

God is with him.

Even his wife says, "Curse God and die," which Holy cow--That's

pretty awful. But he wisely answer serve, "Shall we receive

good at the hand of God? And Shall we not receive evil?" He's

saying, we happily receive good gifts from God. What about when

hard things come? And boy, I don't know about you. But when

Job-- when I read that statement from job, it kind of pricked me

a little bit, because, yeah, it's great to receive blessings

from God. But when hard things come into our lives, kind of

we're mad. I don't know about you. Maybe it's just me. I'm

like, What the heck, God? But Job has a really great

perspective on it. He's like, hey, sometimes bad things are

gonna happen. Are we going to shake our fist at God? We

received the good things with gratitude. Shouldn't we also

receive these hard things with gratitude? And it pains me a

little bit to even say that, but it's a really good lesson from a

very wise man.

He goes on to talk through in the next several chapters, his

testimony of God and in staying with him in and comforting him.

And these are some of my favorite statements from the

book of Job first in chapter 13, verse 15, he says, "Though he

slay me, I will hope and him." Isn't that beautiful, even

though I die, even though I die from these boils, I'm going to

hope in Him still. So just remember that no one, no act, no

illness, no anything can steal your peace or your faith or your

hope in God. So don't give up. Stay true to Him and never lose

your hope in God.

Another great verse that he says, his testimony in chapter

19, verses 25 through 27. And this is beautiful. He says, "For

I know that my Redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the

latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms

destroy this body, yet in my flesh, I shall see God. Whom I

shall see for myself and mine I shall behold and not another."

So what he's saying here is he's saying, I know that my Redeemer

lives. I know that Jesus lives. I know he's going to come to

Earth. I know that even though my body is going to be laying in

the grave, and worms are going to eat it that yet I will be

resurrected. And I will see God with these, this very body in

this very eyes, in a perfect resurrected state. And so even

though he was suffering with boils he was probably anguishing

with grief inside his soul. He knew he had faith in and hoped

for that day, when all would be made right. When the

resurrection would come in, his body would be perfect, he would

be healed from his boils. He would be healed inside from his

grief. That he would see his children again, that he had just

lost. That that is a powerful thing to hope in, when we're

feeling like God's telling us No. And so that is, that is a

great perspective to keep. And to remember that even though

others may fail us, God never will. And we just keep hoping in

him. That is huge, huge second lesson from Job.

The third lesson we can learn from Job is that trials can be

for our good. And I know that at the time we're going through

them, kind of we're thinking, I don't see the good in this God.

This isn't the miracle I wanted. Um, can we reverse this whole

situation and just go back to when things we're happy and

dandy? But one of the beautiful statements of Job is in chapter

23, verse 10, where he says, "But he knows the way that I

take; when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold." And I

love this because it shows that God knows and Job knew that God

knew the path, the way he was on, he knew he was on this

detoured path that he wasn't happy about. He saw him on that

path. And he knew that when his trial was over, he was going to

come forth as gold.

And it's interesting that he refers to this refining process

of gold. Because as I did a little bit of research on the

internet, about the refining of gold, I learned that one of the

ways that gold is purified is is heating it till it's super high

and melted. And then a chemical is added, which separates the

impurities and they float to the surface of the, the, the

liquefied gold, and you're able to scrape those impurities off.

And so, Job knew that this refining process that gold goes

through being heated to a melting point was so that God

could scrape off perhaps a few extra impurities, and he could

be even more pure. And I love that, quote, I love that, when

he has tried me, I'm going to come forth as gold. This

refining process can be for my good, even though I might not

see it now.

There's a great verse that a friend shared with me when I was

going through some difficult trials in my early adulthood.

And, and it's in Romans 8:28. And it says, "And we know that

all things work together for good to them that love God." And

it's just that concept that these hard things that you may

be going through right now, God can turn them for your good

Eventually. So you've just kind of hope on. These trials,

something goods gonna come from them, even though I may not see

it now. Even though I don't like it when God tells me No,

something good will come from this.

Now, the fourth and final blessing is to hope on because

blessings come eventually. And so it is that hope of just keep

going one more step, just keep putting one foot in front of the

other, taking the next moment, moving forward, little bit by

little bit. In the very last chapter of job and there's 42

chapters there. So it's a long book in the Old Testament,

there's this really great part where Job humbles himself again

before God with an increased perspective, and even though

he's been angry with his friends, because they were not

very kind to him, that that he should pray for his friends and

forgive them. What a hard thing to do. Here he's been had so

many hard things. His friends have been so unkind and called

him wicked and hypocritical. And, and Job realizes that he

needs to be humble and forgive them.

And so he prays and offers burn offerings to God for them. And

as he does that, God, it's like God opens the windows of heaven.

Job learned the lesson he needed to learn. And I love these

verses in chapter 42 in verses 10 and 12, which talks about

what happens here it says, "The Lord turned the captivity of Job

when he prayed for his friends. And also the Lord gave Job twice

as much as he had before. So the Lord blessed the latter end of

Job more than his beginning." So even though Job was awesome, and

totally set up in the beginning of his life, that the end of his

life was double blessed. He had 10 more children, he had many

more sheep and oxen, and camels. And it's just incredible to see

that God can take someone so humble and broken, and bless

them so immensely.

Now, some of you out there may be thinking, yeah, Tamara, but

what if, what if what if somebody dies? What can I hope

for then? Hope that those blessings will come eventually

in the eternities? Because they will. Jesus Christ Himself talks

about going to prepare us a mansion on high. And would it be

heaven if we didn't have our loved ones with us?

So those are the four lessons that I've really take from the

story of Job. First, that hard things happen to good people.

Second, that although friends may fail us, God never dies. So

keep hoping in Him. Third, trials can be for our good. And

four, that we can hope on because blessings eventually

come.

And so if you've ever felt a little frustrated, when people

share their story of miracles, and wonder why miracles never

happened in your life, know that you're not alone. There's many

of us out there who have had situations happen in our lives

where God told us no to. And I will share my quick story of, of

when this happened to me, and it was when my cute little boys

were diagnosed with autism, and I knew God could heal them. But

he His answer was no. And that was hard to stomach. I'd seen

God's miracles in my life before I'd been healed by him after a

really, really bad car accident. I'd had impressions and thoughts

and witnesses that God was there and that he heard my prayers.

And I knew he answered them. I had, I'd had too many instances

where I knew he was there.

And so I just didn't understand why he was telling me No, this

time around. Wouldn't it be better and easier if, if, if

they were healed? And the answer is, yeah, it probably would have

been. But hard things happen to good people. Friends may fail

us. And perhaps even me, I know, people have looked at me and

perhaps avoided me because, you know, me and my family were

different. But God never has failed me. And He's actually

blessed me with some amazing and wonderful friends because of my

kiddos. And I've seen this third lesson that trials have been for

my good. As much as I cried and wept and vented to God and

begged for my son's to be healed. Through the days and

weeks and months and years of dealing with kiddos with special

needs--long days and extra long nights. These is a cleaning poop

up off the walls and that had been smashed into the carpet;

having to leave events because they're tantruming or having a

hard time. I can say that my life and the lessons I've

learned that I'm a better person now than I used to be. And I've

had to walk this road because it's been so hard. relying more

on God. I've had to lean on Him as I never would have had to if

He would have simply held them. Because I have not had the

answers and they haven't been ones you can find on the

internet. There's been lots of great suggestions but I've had

to lean on Him. And by leaning on Him I've learned to love Him

and trust Him more than I would have if He would have held them.

So I can honestly say now looking back two decades now of

dealing with this challenge, that this trial has been for my

good. And I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful that God didn't

answer that prayer or I wouldn't be doing this podcast right now.

Because I know what it's like to feel broken. I know what it's

like when He says no, and I hope that I can be a voice of the

questions you're asking and the challenges that you are dealing

with. And just and share a little bit added perspective,

perhaps, that maybe you hadn't considered before.

Anyway, that leads to the fourth thing that I learned in that is

hope on because blessings come eventually. And they have, and

they do. And every challenge that's presenting itself, even

now with Nathan, graduated from high school, and from his post

secondary program, and we're entering the job force. And

we've had some challenges and, and things haven't worked out

super easy. I've had to lean on God again, and we and so we've

got this new idea that God's kind of placed in our brain, and

we're starting to work on it. But these little answers and

miracles and blessings come in such little tiny bites and

increments that sometimes you don't recognize them until

you're maybe a mile or two down the road. And you look back and

go, Oh my gosh, we've come a long ways. So those blessings

come.

And so for all of you out there, who are struggling and who feel

like God is not answering your prayer that way you'd like. He's

not sending you the miracles you want. He's telling you No. Can I

invite you to apply the lessons learned from Job? Lessons I've

learned in my own life, and through my own hardships? First,

that hard things do happen to good people. You're a good

person, and hard things are going to happen. 2. That other

people may fail you but God never does. 3. That trials and

challenges will work out for your good and 4. that you need

to just hope on and hang in there until those blessings

come--because they do eventually. Sometimes they come

in this life. And sometimes we have to wait for the next for

the resurrected, perfected body, or to see a loved one who has

passed on.

But I'd like to add my witness to that of Job that I know that

my Redeemer lives. I love Him. I'm thankful that my detoured

journey has brought me closer to Him. And that has made me rely

on Him because I'm better because of it. And my testimony

is that you will be better because of your trial as you

lean on Him, because He will never fail you.

Hope on my friend.

Are you looking for a gift for a friend, sister or mother who is

really struggling right now and you're not sure what to get

them? It's hard for me to sometimes find those gifts. And

so today I'm so excited to tell you about this booklet, The

Mother's Mite it's a perfect simple, inexpensive gift you can

give your friends, your family, your sisters, anyone that you

want to share this story with. And it will be meaningful. It's

not just a little piece of candy that they eat and forget. It's

something they can read over and over again. Because so often we

as women feel alone and overwhelmed and burdened and

like there's so many things weighing upon our shoulders. And

what I love about this story is that it points us to Jesus

Christ in our times of trouble, that He understands us. He loves

us. He knows what we're going through, and He is more than

willing to help us bear that burden. And I love that about

this story that it gives not only me hope, but it will convey

that sense of hope for all of you. So get your copy of it

today. TamaraKAnderson.com/store, you

can order one to 10, 20 however many you want, and we will get

those to you so you can get them distributed. All right now on to

our show.

Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. If

you like what you heard, subscribe so you can get your

weekly dose of powerful stories of hope. I know there are many

of you out there who are going through a hard time and I hope

you found useful things that you can apply to your own life in

today's podcast. If you'd like to access the show notes of

today's show, please visit my website

storiesofhopepodcast.com. There you will find a summary of

today's show, the transcript and one of my favorite takeaways.

You know, if someone kept coming to mind during today's episode,

perhaps that means that you should share this episode with

them. Maybe there was a story shared or quote, or a scripture

verse that they really, really need to hear. So go ahead and

share this podcast. May God bless you, especially if you are

struggling with hope to carry on and with the strength. Keep

going. When things get tough. Remember to walk with Christ and

He will help you bear the burden. And above all else,