No, I’m not referring to the yoga position, but to the concept of praying for a no rather than a yes.
At Black Stump on the weekend, I was talking to a pastor about a possible mission trip next year. He talked to me for awhile and asked me various questions, and we came to the conclusion that I really wanted to go on the trip. At the end of our meeting he said to “pray for a no, not for a yes”, assuming that God wants me to go unless he tells me otherwise!
It’s an interesting concept, and the few people I have mentioned it to so far hadn’t really thought about it before either. It seems to make alot of sense. The Bible says that God will give us our heart’s desires (Psalm 37:4b) so if we already have a desire for something, it’s quite possible that God has placed that desire there as a ‘yes’ to us. In searching for a yes, we may come up disappointed because He has already given it to us. And in searching for a ‘no’, the desire may well just get stronger – and there’d be no ‘no’ in sight – hence concluding the process of seeking God’s wisdom for that particular decision.
Thoughts? Use the comment form below to weigh in.
That makes some sense to me. God makes us in a special way that we have certain dreams and asperations. Why not follow them rather than look for reasons not too. I saw a T-Shirt at Stump that said, “Dream like you will live for ever, live like this is your last day”. or something like that. I can’t think of a direct bible verse that goes with this but it seems to fit with not the vibe of having faith and living the day free of worrying about tomorrow.
The only concern I have with looking for a “no” is that it might make you look for the negatives rather than the positives. I don’t like the idea of sitting around thinkning of all the reasons why I shouldn’t do something. I like the idea of saying “This is on my heart so I am doing this God unless you make it obvious not too”. Thinking about it as I have been writing, I guess I think it sounds like a good idea that could work really well if you approach it with a positive attitude.