June 1943
205
When God. Says "No” By PAUL HUTCHENS Waterloo, Iowa G OD’S “NO;” in answer to pray er, means, “Something better.”* That is the happy secret I have discovered after being denied one of
My yearifing was little short of agony as I cried out in prayer, my hands gripping the steering wheel des perately. “Now, O God! Now! I ask Thee. I expect Thee to heat me, I take . . . ” Yes, I tried to take by faith—• or what I hoped was faith—health from God. I sobbed brokenly. My soul reached up, like a baby bird with open mouth toward Him whom I loved, waiting for Him to drop from heaven the answer I needed. “This moment! Souls are d y i n g without Christ! Please, God! For Jesus’ sake!” . Had He not said, “If we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us” ? Surely it was His will for me to be well! It was the supreme desire of my life. If He did not answer today, a telegram would have to be sent, can celing my engagement. There was also the problem of providing for my wife, and for the new baby which was to arrive in a few months. The frogs in the pond on either side of the road continued their metallic pipings, gray clouds scudded lo w across the sky, with rtot one ray of sunshine straying through. For me there was no music, no light from the silent, murky heavens. In my mind there was ringing the seemingly cruel answer, “No, no, no!” I am sure God must have said it gent ly, but at that time it Seemed as if I had prayed to an impersonal, intangi ble Being who did not care—who could not care—He with whom I had com muned and whom I had known and loved so many years. I drove back to the city, discouraged and lonely, defeated. Days, weeks, months passed, during which time I continued in an attitude of expectan cy, hoping, praying, trying to believe,
the most earnest desires of my whole life. “O my Father!” I cried that after noon in 1929 at Santa Rosa, California, “I plead with Thee! Hear my prayer now! Now!” I was alone in my parked car on a quiet country road several miles from town. It was the rainy season and on either side of the road the ditches were full. Frogs piped their lonely melodies, songs I ordinarily loved to hear, but today they only intensified my despair and loneliness. Rain clouds hid the sun which was already Tow in .the west. Today, I thought, now, this moment, God will heal me. He must heal me! I was scheduled to conduct a union evangelistic mission in a Colorado town. Nearly one thousand persons had been born into the kingdom of God under my ministry the year be fore. As many more might be saved in each succeeding year of my life, if God allowed me to continue in the work for which He had trained me— and in which I had been so happy. But tuberculosis is no respecter of persons. I was already an advanced case. Only dod could come to the res cue. He must intervene or I would die, I thought. Surely He needed me on earth far more than in heaven; and He needed me now, not after I had “chased the cure” for years. The accompanying testtmony (the opening chapter in a book by the same name) is known to some readers of THE KING’S » BUSINESS . But it is reprinted, by request, for the sake of many to whom, in these war days , it will have a special message of com - fort,— EDITOR.
not knowing it is a better, purer faith that asks and trusts the living God to do what is right, than that which in sists upon an answer which may be out of harmony with His will and purpose. It is not unbelief to take “No” for an answer; to say, “Not my will, but Thine, be done.” The Saviour Himself prayed those words when He agonized that dark night in Gethsemane’s gar den. Such praying on our part, it seems to me, is faith indeed. Faith in His goodness, in His daily watch-care, in His plan for our lives, in Himself. His “No” that day and His contin ued “No” through the years has meant, “I have something better for you, My child; for you and for others.” [ Continued on Page 212]
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker