The woman said no because she knows how to love and serve the Lord with a healthy combination of love, humility, wisdom, and discernment. She knows when to say yes, and she knows when to say no. She knows what she can do well, and she knows what is not best for her to do. She knows her challenges, her limitations, and she knows her strengths. She is careful to discern what God wants her to do, and what He does not. And she knows that when she says no, this does not mean she does not want to love and serve the Lord. In fact, when the woman said no to me, she not only gave me an explanation of why she did not feel she would be a good fit for the opportunity I described to her. She not only told me how she did not feel she would be able to help. She shared with me her areas of strength and offered to help with what she believes she is in fact called to do in loving and serving the Lord.
What a great lesson for so many of us. For those of us who desire to love and serve the Lord, this does not mean we should automatically say yes to every opportunity that comes along that would seem to bring honor and glory to God. This means we need to seek His face, to dig deep into His Word, and to use wisdom and discernment to do our best to hear from God what He has called each of us to do in the way of loving and serving Him.
When we learn how to hear God and to say no to what He wants us to say no to, we are then available to say yes to what He wants us to say yes to. The woman who said no to what I asked her is a wonderful reminder to us all, I believe, to remember that loving and serving God is not about how good or right or tempting an opportunity may seem. It is about seeking God and saying yes to Him because the one we desire to love and serve is the one who will let us know how, when, and where He desires us to do just that. Not to bring glory to anyone other than the one to whom all praise belongs. The Lord!
Deu 10:12 And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Deu 10:13 To keep the commandments of the LORD, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?