No Means No, But It Also Means Love

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” - Isaiah 55:8-9

As parents, we have a responsibility to teach our children how to live. God blesses us with a child to be able to feel love. True love from heaven. When that child comes, God hands them over to us with all we need to train up the child in His way. God’s Word is with us to lead us and show us how to live so the blessing from heaven can live a peaceful and happy life. One where the child is thanking God in every moment with happiness and living a peaceful life!

A big part of parenting is correcting the child. When a child wants something they think they need but isn’t good for them, we say “No”. This “no” isn’t out of hate but instead because we love them. We know what is best for them. That is why God says:

“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor detest His correction; For whom the Lord loves He corrects, Just as a father the son in whom he delights” - Proverbs 3:11-12

Are there ways in your life that you know God is telling you no but you aren’t listening? Maybe you just don’t agree because you think that it is what is best for you. Ask yourself this, how could we know what is best for us if we don’t know everything? God sees and knows everything. God’s Word is very clear on what He wants for us:

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11

If God knows everything, and His thoughts towards us are peaceful and not evil, plus He wants us to have a hopeful future, why wouldn’t we trust His ways completely? Jesus came here to show us the heart of God. That heart makes God very pleased. That heart listens and obeys and accepts correction with happiness knowing this will change something for good in His life. That heart will be blessed:

“Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” - Luke 11:28

Let us all say no to pride and start hearing God’s “no” and changing our lives to do His will. Changing our lives changes our children’s lives and their children’s lives. I know you can feel the love of God’s word when He tells us:

“But the loving-kindness of the Lord is forever and forever on those who fear Him. And what is right with God is given forever to their children’s children, to those who keep His agreement and remember to obey His Law.” - Psalm 103:17-18

God’s “No” in your life means I love you! Don’t let the devil make you feel like it is anything else. God’s love for you is life. Be so happy about being told “no” by God that you keep looking for ways you can correct your life to be just like the life of Jesus:

“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin” - Romans 6:6

The best and only real “self-help-book” on the planet is the Bible. We must use God’s word to correct our lives so we can live like Jesus. Open your Bible with a happy heart and one ready to learn. God loves you! God knows everything! Read the Bible ready to hear correction to change your ways, and live the peaceful, happy, and content life God wants for you.