How do I make this short and sweet?

Once again, I am posting a link to the blog of Erin Fray, my friend Katie's sister, who is battling cancer. She posted a sermon from her pastor titled "A God who sometimes says 'no'". I rarely listen to sermons online because I don't like to sit in front of my computer long enough to listen to them, but I listened to this one. I copied a quote from that sermon in case you are anything like me and may not get around to listening to it, though it is worth your time.

The passage is Deuteronomy 3:23-29, where Moses begs God to reconsider his decision to refuse to let Moses cross into the Promise Land. God says 'no'. Erin's pastor says this:

“One pastor put it this way: Where do we find true heroism in faith? Where is it really demonstrated in the world? In the Christian who’s life is easy? Who wants for little? Who hardly ever prays with passion because he can’t think of anything he needs that badly? Or is the glory of God reflected rather in a man or woman who obeys when obedience is difficult, whose heart is sweet even through great disappointment and who will not doubt the Lord even when life is cruel and hard and discouraging?


"I say Moses was a greater man for God’s ‘no’, and his obedient and trusting submission to God’s will than he would have been if God had said ‘yes’. I say Moses did a greater thing by far cheerfully to obey God’s command in the face of great disappointment than he would have done had he gotten permission instead to cross the river. I say Moses showed us much more about the greatness of God, about God’s truth and faithfulness and love and kindness when in the face of God’s crushing refusal, he so readily accepted God’s answer as good and right and bent himself to doing all that God had commanded him. I say the reality of God and his glory, his presence in the lives of his children, the power of his love, and the truth of all that he has taught them, especially about life and death, is more brilliantly displayed in Moses’ willing resignation to God’s refusal than most any other point in Moses’ life.”

Why is God saying 'no' to my prayers, prayers that my friends Jodi and Jim's daughters would be healed from their daily and painful battle with acid reflux and sleepless nights, that my brother would be granted a job, that so many of my fellow seminary friends would be granted jobs, that God would just give us half a mil so we can plant a church, that Erin would be healed from cancer?? I have a slightly better understanding now. If God can be more glorified in the 'no', if his people can be used more greatly for his purposes, for which they were created, then and only then do I say, 'Bring on the 'no''.