When God Says "No": Facing Disappointment and Denial without Losing Heart, Losing Hope, or Losing Your Head

This compassionate new book by Elizabeth Laing Thompson is an excellent scripture-based resource for enduring the hard times when we do not understand how the Lord could say no. No to healing chronic illness, no to preventing the death of a loved one, no to getting a new job, no to having a child, or any other need or dream. This will be a new go-to guide for me, as there have been times this book would have been very helpful in my walk with the Lord. This is the kind of book that one might purchase extra copies of, one for their own shelf and additional copies to gift. The author writes with empathy for all situations. She shares her own experiences as well as those of others with grace, dignity, and honesty. Appropriate scripture is referenced throughout and is comforting and encouraging. Woven throughout is God’s unconditional love, with a special emphasis in one chapter. Others that I found that hit home through personal circumstances are the need for surrender, when a hard situation is not removed, and when a hard situation is a consequence of my sin. Preceding each chapter is a story of a person in scripture who could be associated with the topic of the chapter. These include Moses, Miriam, Naomi, Paul, and Jesus. The meat of the chapter includes more detailed information about that person and how they handled their situation. Some include a brief experience of the author or friend of the author and how it affected them, a scripture reading to learn more about the Bible person or their situation, a prayer prompt, also from scripture, and questions that can assist in journaling if the reader chooses. The author shows the reality of life in a broken world and real-life, biblical solutions. She expresses care for each reader even as she points to the Lord, the One who is intimately involved with our situations, and encourages having a close friend or prayer partner. It can be read and understood by many who are grieving. She discusses anger, denial, and open communication with God, and shows that we can still worship and praise God for our blessings. If I could suggest anything, it might be truths of how one can believe in the Lord as our loving heavenly Father for those whose earthly father was absent or abusive. My favorite sections are the one emphasizing the God’s unconditional love and the one showing what surrender is through the person of Jesus Christ. My heart soared at the author’s words, “Gethsemane is the reason I am in love with Jesus. . . the reason I worship Him. And the reason I finally trust Him enough to say, though the saying is hard, “Your will be done.”” I highly recommend this to anyone who is working through the Lord saying No to their hard situation, as well as Christian counselors, pastors, lay people, and friends of the hurting. If the hurting person is unable to read at this time, carry these gentle messages to them. I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and NetGalley and was under no obligation to post a review.