It is early this blessed Sabbath morning.  I am sitting outside on my porch, enjoying the crisp, cool air, listening to all the sounds that nature makes.  I wish I knew more about birds in which to identify which ones I am hearing.  I can hear perhaps six, or more, different varieties, all talking to each other rather loudly.  I can hear the sound of  water softly dripping out of an ever-so-little water fountain we have.

The horses are grazing so peacefully in their pasture.  I love to watch them.  Lately, we have been monitoring their grazing time and keeping them in what is called a “dry lot”, in order to keep them from becoming over weight.  Our horses would eat themselves to death, literally,  if we let them have unlimited pasture.   Since putting them on this restricted diet, I have felt uncomfortable with it, wishing only to let them graze and wanting them to be blissfully happy.  However, my vet has warned me that to do so, could and would bring them obesity (this happened last year) and in turn could bring them to the danger of flounder and colick, both medical conditions that could lame or kill them .  I have found that to give them what they want, would bring them ultimately an untimely death at worse, and at best, would bring them much physical ailments and disabilities.

How much more, our Father, I think, does the same with us. 

I have often thought about God ‘s three answers to our prayers and desires.  These three are:  “Yes” (my favorite); “Wait” (the hardest); and “No” (my least preferred).   It is this last answer that I most unusually found myself thinking about this past week.

One of these answers, “No” was for a house my husband and I almost bought. It was when we were married only approximately 4 years. The house was so very charming.  We made an offer and  went back to our apartment to  get money for deposit of  a  down payment.  When we returned,  the elderly home owners  informed us that while we were gone, someone else had come and made a higher offer, and they accepted it.  We were so disappointed. 

But God was protecting us there, although we could not see it at the time.  He later gave us our first home in a much safer neighborhood.  The home we had almost purchased was on the outskirts of a city called, Gary, Indiana, which has the highest murder capital per population in the United States.   God was protecting us by not giving us what we thought we wanted.

Then, I remembered other times that I had asked of God something outside of the material world, like a home, but rather, something I desired, very strongly so, in ministry.  I thought my request was a good one,  something He could use in a great way to further His kingdom.  And again, He told me, “No”.  Now, through the past few years, I have slowly come to understand just what it was I was asking, my motives for asking it, and I could see that here, too, He was just protecting me for something I was perhaps unfit for, unable to handle.

On the other hand, God has given me many things that I did not ask for,  but now, I am so eternally grateful  that He has provided in the way which He has.  In the book of Psalms, the first chapter, He has promised that if we meditate in His Word, don’t take the counsel of the ungodly, or walk in the way of sinners, there is no good thing we will lack.   He knows what will harm us although we may desire it greatly. He knows what will bring us ultimate happiness, although we may be clueless to what that will be.   

Like my horses that graze in a beautiful pasture, but at times, I must withhold them from it,  sometimes God must do the same thing for us, withholding things we feel that we must have. These are the valleys we walk through in life.    I am grateful for the all the “No” answers I have received as I can see His ultimate sovereignty , overseeing my life in detail.