Or, I suppose it would be more accurate to ask how often God says no to your prayers? We've all experienced it. We've prayed and prayed and prayed... only to see life take a different course than the one we would've chosen.
Here, this man who has just been miraculously cured by Jesus wants nothing more than to get in the boat with Jesus and go along with him. There are likely leadership books written about how you just need to get in the boat and leave the old behind, but that's not the lesson here. Jesus says no, and sends him on a different mission, one that involves going away from Jesus and telling his story. It's not what he would've chosen, but it's how Jesus tells him that he is most useful to the Kingdom.
The same is true for us. When God tells us no, it's not because we are rejected. It's because there is another path for us. The hard part is keeping the eyes and ears of our hearts open to hear what the Holy Spirit is saying to us, that we may find the most faithful path when life redirects us another way.
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