What happens when you tell God "no"?

I look back on my past decisions, and there are literally dozens of times that God called me to act and I told Him "no". The ones that affect only me are easy to deal with, but what really messed me up were the times that He wanted me to interact with others.


You see, I worried that every time I didn't share the Gospel when I was commanded to, or show someone an act of kindness, I had ruined God's plan. In my mind I had gotten in the way.


Of course, the very notion that I could possible interrupt God's plan is completely ludicrous. I don't know when I decided that I was important enough to screw with the creators master plan, but sure enough, I felt like every time I said "no", I was doing just that.


This process revealed some interesting things to me though. Obviously, I can and do say "no" when God seeks to act through me, and obviously I cannot get in the way of His plans. So then, what does happen when I say "no"? What is the consequence of my action?


There are many answers to this question, but I choose to break it down in one of two ways.


1. God will still fulfill his plan, and he will still use you to do it.
2. God will still fulfill his plan, and you will miss out on it.


For an illustration of point number one, simply read the book of Jonah. Here we find a great example of God telling Jonah to go to Nineveh to reach the people in His name. Jonah, ever ready to be used as an example in my blog, told God "no", and ran away from his calling. God chose to still use Jonah to fulfill His plan, but here's the catch (isn't there always one?)...


It took a storm, a near death experience, being swallowed by a whale, 3 days of the foulest smelling voyage I can imagine, and only to be dumped on the shore where his next step was to preach to a city filled with people he despised. God still used Jonah, but how much easier would Jonah's life had been if he just hopped on his camel and took off? When we tell God "no" and He uses us anyways, the trip is always much harder than it had to be.


Point number two is much easier to deal with and far worse than the first. In this case, God still accomplishes what He set out to do, but you miss out on seeing His glory and His work. You miss out on connecting with the God of the Universe that wants to show you how amazing He is so that you can understand how amazing your relationship with Him is. Without that image of God's greatness and His divine power, it becomes all to easy to become stale in your relationship with Him.


This is by far the worse thing I can imaging. A slow, stale, quiet death. Drifting unheard of into the night, never making a peep. Never realizing your potential in Christ and never knowing the power of the King.


My prayer, is that we would all say "no" a lot less in our daily lives. Especially, the BIG things. The more stupid, impossible, unreasonable, and painful the call, the more God will use it to rock your face off and be glorified in the process.


What is it God is calling you to? Where have you been telling God "no"?