And a voice came to him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." But Peter said, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean." And a voice spoke to him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call common." This was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again. Acts 10:13-16

Once before (Matthew 16:22), when Jesus told the disciples that He was to be crucified, Peter rebuked the Lord and said, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!" Now here in Acts 10, after receiving a divine vision about accepting what was previously forbidden, Peter said, "Not so, Lord!”

To be fair to Peter, he was following his strongly held convictions. But when the Lord says something—anything—we are in no position to oppose Him.

I may not voice my objections to the Lord, but too often, my attitudes and actions oppose Him. Whether in our minds, our words or our actions, defying the Lord is the wrong thing to do! The Words “No” and “Lord” simply do not belong together. Because Jesus is Lord, the only correct response is “Yes, Lord.” And that is true even when what He has said is hard for us to swallow.

A word of caution: This does not apply to what people claim the Lord has said, or to our fanciful imaginations when we think the Lord is speaking to us. God speaks to us in His Word. As Isaiah wrote (8:20), “To the Law and the testimony [the Word]! If they [other people or our “feelings”] do not speak according to this word [the Word of God] it is because there is no light in them!

Let us not oppose God, and let us be sure that it is His voice that we are obeying.