Strong Faith
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5
When the Lord tells David that he is not going to be the one to build the temple, I really like the fact that David seems at peace with God’s “no” and doesn’t have a pity party.
To be honest, I was expecting the Scripture to say that David had a nervous breakdown and that he experienced a crisis in his faith when God said “no.” I was expecting the passage to say that David gave up on God, questioned the existence of the Lord, and doubted God’s power when he didn’t get the answer he wanted. I was expecting it to say that he stopped praying, stopped reading his Bible, and stopped serving in the ministry when God said “no, you can’t have that.” I thought the next few lines were going to say that he started hanging out at the bars, started popping pills, and stopped believing that God was real. But it didn’t.
David’s faith in God was big enough and broad enough to handle a “no” from God. This is an example we should all be looking to follow. So with that in mind, what about you? Is your faith strong enough to withstand a “no” from God? Or are you just a Christian because you want God to be your heavenly genie who must grant your every wish or you’re ready to give up on Him?
David wasn’t like that at all. He wasn’t addicted to God’s yeses in order to affirm that God was still God. Regardless of what the Lord’s answer was, David knew God was still a bridge over troubled waters. He is a shelter in the time of trouble. He is a rock in a weary land. He is a balm in Gilead. He is the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star. He was all of those things to David, and He is all of those things to us today. So don’t let your faith give out when God says “no.” Instead, allow your faith to be strengthened and develop more trust when God gives you an answer different than the one you wanted.
When the Lord tells David that he is not going to be the one to build the temple, I really like the fact that David seems at peace with God’s “no” and doesn’t have a pity party.
To be honest, I was expecting the Scripture to say that David had a nervous breakdown and that he experienced a crisis in his faith when God said “no.” I was expecting the passage to say that David gave up on God, questioned the existence of the Lord, and doubted God’s power when he didn’t get the answer he wanted. I was expecting it to say that he stopped praying, stopped reading his Bible, and stopped serving in the ministry when God said “no, you can’t have that.” I thought the next few lines were going to say that he started hanging out at the bars, started popping pills, and stopped believing that God was real. But it didn’t.
David’s faith in God was big enough and broad enough to handle a “no” from God. This is an example we should all be looking to follow. So with that in mind, what about you? Is your faith strong enough to withstand a “no” from God? Or are you just a Christian because you want God to be your heavenly genie who must grant your every wish or you’re ready to give up on Him?
David wasn’t like that at all. He wasn’t addicted to God’s yeses in order to affirm that God was still God. Regardless of what the Lord’s answer was, David knew God was still a bridge over troubled waters. He is a shelter in the time of trouble. He is a rock in a weary land. He is a balm in Gilead. He is the lily of the valley, the bright and morning star. He was all of those things to David, and He is all of those things to us today. So don’t let your faith give out when God says “no.” Instead, allow your faith to be strengthened and develop more trust when God gives you an answer different than the one you wanted.
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2026
January
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