And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. —Jeremiah 29:13

Sometimes we think a prayer wasn’t answered when, in effect, it was. It just wasn’t answered in the affirmative.

When we ask God for something and He says, “No,” then it means no. So if we want our prayers answered in the affirmative, then we need to align ourselves with God’s will.

God answers prayer in three ways: yes, no, and wait. Sometimes He wants you to grow through your challenge. The apostle Paul came to God with a prayer to remove a physical infirmity. We don’t know what it was, but most commentators believe it was either a disability or an injury he suffered as a result of his ministry. Clearly there were many occasions this could have happened, because Paul was beaten, whipped, shipwrecked, and even put in prison and left for dead on one occasion. You name it, and Paul pretty much went through it.

Whatever the infirmity was, it bothered Paul. So he asked God to take it away. But God said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Sometimes God does not take our adversity away, but He wants us to grow through it.

Then there was Moses, who wanted to see the Israelites delivered from bondage in Egypt. He didn’t wait on God, but instead took matters into his own hands and killed an Egyptian guard. When the Pharaoh found out about it, he effectively put out a contract on Moses’ life, and Moses went into exile for 40 years. Moses had the right idea, but his timing was way off.

Sometimes God will say, “Yes,” sometimes He will say, “No,” and sometimes He will say, “Wait.” But we can be assured that when we passionately cry out to God by faith, He hears us.

……God may answer our prayers with “yes,” “no,” or “wait;” and we can be assured that He knows the best answer when we cry out to Him in faith!  (Greg Laurie)

When times are tough and days are difficult,—- please do not question God’s love! Whether we are being chastised for some wrong or crowned for some good deed, He loves us with an everlasting love. Consider your calamity in the light of Calvary, for it is there that we learn the most about the love of the Father for His Son and all His children. John Piper said it well:

When the Father forsook the Son and handed him over to the curse of the cross and lifted not a finger to spare him pain, he had not ceased to love the Son. In that very moment when the Son was taking upon himself everything that God hates in us, and God was forsaking him to death, even then the Father knew that the measure of his Son’s suffering was the depth of his Son’s love for the Father’s glory. And in that love the Father took deepest pleasure.

I love the farmers explanation when asked about the meaning of the weather vane he installed with the inscription “God is love”. He simply said–“God loves us regardless of which way the wind is blowing!”.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good– Romans 12:21

We cannot avoid trials and temptations, but we can be triumphant over them. The Bible tells us how. It speaks of two things we must do. In our text, we see Paul declaring a warning and describing the way in which we can prevail. Now consider this good advice:

First, be not overcome of evil! There are a thousand different ways in which Satan seeks to tear down our Christian testimony. It may be a temptation to sexual sin, or a tendency toward despair, or a disposition toward anger, or a longing for personal advancement or recognition.

But for all the temptations that may come our way, the remedy is the same, simple command: do not allow evil to overcome you. Stand fast in the Lord and in the power of His strength. Do not give in; do not be puffed up; do not allow your pride or lust or pain to overwhelm you.

And, second, overcome evil with good. The Christian’s posture is not a defensive one. We are to be overcomers, not merely survivors. Not only are we not to give up in fighting sin, we are to counteract the sin in the world by our good lives and conduct. We are to overcome evil.

How can we do that? Not by fighting fire with fire, but rather by overcoming evil with good. There is no other way to successfully battle evil in the world. The goodness of our Savior must be reflected in the good words and works of His people. The more His goodness is displayed, the more sin loses its strength and subtlety.

Don’t be overcome by sin; rather, overcome sin with the goodness of God.(A Good Thing)

“My times are in thy hand; deliver me…” Psalm 31:15

Our times of adversity are also in God’s hand. As every sunbeam that brightens, so every cloud that darkens, comes from God. We are subject to great and sudden reverses in our earthly condition. Joy is often followed by grief; prosperity is often followed by adversity. We are on the pinnacle today; tomorrow at its bottom. Oh! What a change may one event and one moment create! But, beloved, ALL is from the Lord!

Afflictions do not spring from the soil, nor do troubles sprout from the ground. Sorrow cannot come until God bids it. Until God in His sovereignty permits–
health cannot fade,
wealth cannot vanish,
comfort cannot decay,
friendship cannot chill, and
loved ones cannot die.

Your time of sorrow–is His appointment. The bitter cup which it may please the Lord that you shall drink this year, will not be mixed by human hands. In the hand of the Lord, is that cup!

Some treasure you are now pressing to your heart–He may ask you to resign.
Some blessing you now possess–He may bid you to relinquish.
Some fond expectation you now cherish–He may will that you should forego.
Some lonely path–He may design that you should tread.

Yes, He may even bereave you of all–and yet all, ALL is in His hand! His hand! A Father’s hand, moving in thick darkness, is shaping every event, and arranging every detail in your life!

Has sickness laid you on a bed of suffering?
Has bereavement darkened your home?
Has adversity impoverished your resources?
Has change lessened your comforts?
Has sorrow in one of its many forms crushed your spirit to the earth?
The Lord has done it!
In all that has been sent,
in all that has be recalled, and
in all that has been withheld—
His hand, noiseless and unseen, has brought it about!

Ah! yes, that hand of changeless love . . .
blends a sweet with every bitter;
pencils a bright rainbow in each dark cloud;
upholds each faltering step;
shelters within its hollow–and guides with unerring skill, His chosen people safe to eternal glory!

Dear child of God, your afflictions, your trials, your crosses, your losses, your sorrows–all, ALL are in your heavenly Father’s hand, and they cannot come until sent by Him!

Bow that stricken heart! Yield that tempest-tossed soul to His sovereign disposal, to His calm, righteous sway, in the submissive spirit and language of your suffering Savior, “May Your will, O my Father! not mine, be done. My times of sadness and of grief are in Your hand.”

Beloved, all is in your Father’s hand! Be those times what they may:
times of trial,
times of temptation,
times of suffering,
times of peril,
times of sunshine or of gloom,
or times of life or death,
they are in your Father’s hand!

Has the Lord seen fit . . .
to recall some fond blessing,
to deny some earnest request, or
painfully to discipline your heart?
All this springs from a Father’s love–as fully as though He had unlocked His treasury and poured its costliest gifts at your feet!

All of our times are in our Redeemer’s hands! That same Redeemer who carried our sorrows in His heart, our curse and sins on His soul, our cross on His shoulder; who died, who rose again, and who lives and intercedes for us, and who will gather all His ransomed around Him in glory–is your Guardian and your Guide! Your times are in the hands of Him who still bears the print of the nails! —Octavius Winslow