{"id":298,"date":"2015-10-10T21:07:07","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T21:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=298"},"modified":"2015-10-10T21:07:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-10T21:07:07","slug":"what-if-the-answer-is-no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=298","title":{"rendered":"What if the Answer is No?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/eveningskies.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-299 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/eveningskies-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"eveningskies\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/eveningskies-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/eveningskies-150x150.jpg 150w, http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/eveningskies.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>What if you pray for healing, and\u00a0the answer is no?\u00a0 What if you pray for the treatment to work, and the answer is no?\u00a0 What if you pray for a baby this month, and the answer is no?\u00a0 What if you pray, and the answer is no?<\/p>\n<p>Is God still good?\u00a0 Is he still in control?\u00a0 Is He still faithful?\u00a0 Is He still loving?<\/p>\n<p>I love hearing about those times when people pray and God&#8217;s answer is yes.\u00a0 Those times when they look for the tumor and it&#8217;s gone.\u00a0 Those times when all seems lost and the miraculous happens.\u00a0 Those times when death seems certain and life begins again.\u00a0 Upon hearing those stories, we celebrate.\u00a0 We smile and laugh.\u00a0 We sing.\u00a0 We talk of God&#8217;s goodness and His provision.\u00a0 We tell anyone and everyone who will listen.<\/p>\n<p><em>But what if the answer is no?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Can we still celebrate?\u00a0 Can we still talk of God&#8217;s goodness and provision?\u00a0 Can we speak of God&#8217;s love?<\/p>\n<p>In the last week, I know of friends and family members who have been told no.\u00a0 There will be no miraculous healing.\u00a0 The treatment will not work.\u00a0 There will be no baby this month.<\/p>\n<p><em>Is God still good?\u00a0 Can we still praise Him?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t understand why some people get the &#8216;yes&#8217; while others receive &#8216;no&#8217;.\u00a0\u00a0God is God, and I am not.\u00a0 He doesn&#8217;t owe me an explanation.\u00a0 This is where that faith and trust come in.<\/p>\n<p>So in the midst of my pain and disappointment, I stand in faith, trusting that\u00a0God is still good.\u00a0 And that He will give strength, comfort, and peace to all of us who have to live with a &#8216;no&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What if you pray for healing, and\u00a0the answer is no?\u00a0 What if you pray for the treatment to work, and the answer is no?\u00a0 What if you pray for a baby this month, and the answer is no?\u00a0 What if &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/?p=298\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/eveningskies.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=298"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/298\/revisions\/301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.karen-gustafson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}