Looking back, most of us can point to a prayer God said no to that we are now grateful He didn't answer. In this episode, discover why God's refusals are not rejections, and how His no is often the most loving thing He does for us. On the morning of September 11, 2001, Genelle Guzman-McMillan went to work in her office on the 64th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center. When the building collapsed, she was pinned in the rubble on the 13th floor, alone in the dark, unable to move, with no way of knowing that every coworker she had been descending with was gone. Genelle had not been a woman of faith before that morning. But in the darkness, she began to pray. And then a hand reached through the rubble and took hers. A man's voice told her his name was Paul. He told her to hold on. He told her she was going to make it. She was pulled out twenty-seven hours after the towers fell, the last living person removed from the rubble of the World Trade Center. When she asked about the man named Paul, nobody could find him. Nobody had seen him. Nobody knew who he was. Genelle did not get what she would have prayed for that morning. She would have prayed to never be there. She would have prayed for the building not to fall. None of those prayers were answered the way she wanted. But what she found in the rubble, that hand, that presence, that encounter with a God she had not been looking for, became the turning point of her life. Her story is one of the most striking illustrations of what this episode is really about: that God's refusals are not rejections. They are often the most strategic, most loving, most carefully considered responses He gives us. The Apostle Paul experienced this firsthand. In 2 Corinthians 12, he describes a painful, persistent thorn in his flesh that he begged God three times to remove. God said no. Not because He didn't hear, but because what the thorn was producing in Paul was worth more than the relief Paul was asking for. God's answer was direct: my grace is enough, and my power works best in weakness. Through Genelle's story and Paul's thorn, this episode takes an honest look at the prayers God chose not to answer the way we wanted, and what His refusals can produce in us that His yes never could. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why God's no is often the most loving and purposeful response He can give, and what it is designed to produceWhat 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 reveals about the relationship between unanswered prayer, weakness, and God's powerA practical challenge to help you look back at one prayer God refused, and find His hand in the refusal God is not careless with your prayers. He sees the full picture when you can only see the corner you're standing in. And sometimes the most loving thing a Father can do is refuse to give His child what the child is convinced they cannot live without. Share This Episode: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/215 Need Prayer? Leave me a voicemail: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/voicemail Want to keep these devotions coming? Please consider supporting this podcast. https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/support/ Connect with Bart Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/dailydevotionsforbusylives Website: https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com Feeling spiritually drained? Start here. Download your free copy of my eBook Making Time for Jesus here. Mentioned in this episode: Join Our Private Facebook Community If you're looking for a place to connect with other Daily Devotions listeners and pray for each other, I'd love for you to join our private Facebook community group. Come find us at https://www.dailydevotionsforbusylives.com/group
