Utica Baptist Church, Utica, Mississippi

  "Wait for the Lord, and He will deliver you." (Proverbs 20:22b)

Have you ever had God say "No" to one of  your most fervent prayers?

Ultimately, we must acknowledge that God has a purpose in allowing His children to suffer, even if we do not or cannot know what that purpose is. Elisabeth Elliot once wrote, "Let us never forget tht some of God's greatest mercies are His refusals. He says no in order that He may, in some way we cannot imagine, say yes. All His ways are merciful. His meaning is always love."

One unknown poet expressed it this way:
Humbly I asked of God to give me joy,
To crown my life with blossoms of delight:
I begged for happiness without alloy,
Discovering that my pathway should be bright.
Prayerfully I sought out these blessings to attain
And now I thank Him that He gave me pain,
For with my pain and sorrow came to me
A dower of tenderness in act and thought,
And with the suffering came a sympathy
And insight that success had never brought
Father, I had been foolish and unblest
If Thou hadst granted me my blind request.

Take a good look at those lines again. Then fall on your knees and thank God that sometimes He says "No."

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com

  Josh Billings called it "a good place to visit, but a poor place to stay." Jean de La Bruyere stated that it was a "great misfortune…to be incapable of solitude." Carl Sandburg figured that we have not cultivated the habit of solitude because we are afraid of being alone:

"Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Lincoln never saw a movie, heard a radio, or looked at a TV. They had 'loneliness' and knew what to do with it. They were not afraid of being lonely because they knew that was when the creative mood in them would mark."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer sensed a certain value of solitude when he wrote, "It is as though in solitude the soul develops senses which we hardly know in everyday life."

It is important to understand that there is a vast difference between being lonely and being alone. It is also important to distinguish between being alone with God in solitude, and merely being alone.

The man or woman of God thrives on the times when he or she can be alone with God, just being still and quiet before Him.

Robert H. Benson once wrote, "It is in silence that God is known, and through mysteries that He declares Himself."

Our idea of solitude today is a few stolen moments while we are driving from one place to another, or five minutes with our feet propped up before the next thing on our schedule. But the Bible does not read, "Run frantically around, and know that I am God." Read it for yourself; it still says, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

But it does not happen automatically. Especially in our day, when there are so many distractions and responsibilities and expectations, we must deliberately carve out time to spend with Him.

--Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com

In St. Peter, Missouri, Terry Sanderson is the pastor of Calvary Church. He has written on his church’s website:

“I have to admit that for the longest time I avoided bold prayers at all cost because I was afraid how God might answer them. I didn't want to pray for patience fearing that God would "stick" me with an irritating person. I didn't want to pray for love lest I experience betrayal. I didn't want to pray for the salvation of someone because God may ask me to be the one to share with them. Safe prayers were a lot easier. God didn't have to work in me. He just had to change someone else.

“But Jesus did not come to make our life safe, easy and predictable. He invites us into a dynamic adventure with Him. And now I pray more boldly asking the Lord to challenge me, change me and use me. There is nothing like seeing God answer those.

“Imagine what it would be like for a church to pray boldly and to mean it. Imagine a church on its knees imploring God to use them. Imagine a church that says we don't want to be safe or predictable. We want to see the power of God at work in us.”

And then this pastor made a startling comment, “We could be that church.”