Learning to Say YES to God, and NO to this World

I’ve spent a lot of time lately thinking about how to learn to say YES to God more. It’s not that I say NO every time, it’s just that I’ve come to realize that I say no a lot more often than I even realize. In every day there are opportunities to serve and love other people the way that Jesus taught us. But just because we love Jesus, just because we have the “bumper sticker” on our car, doesn’t mean that we aren’t missing opportunity after opportunity to be more like him.

Last week I watched as a good friend went through an incredibly difficult day. She made a decision that had a pretty significant impact on the lives of others. Then she watched as the ripple effect of her choice made waves that lashed back at her with anger, frustration and disappointment. The thing is, my friend made a choice that was allowing her to say YES to God in a bigger way, but the flip side of the choice was saying NO to this world. It was saying no to a large group of people, and the people weren’t happy about it.

In learning to say yes to God, we also have to learn to say no to this world… and we all know that isn’t easy.  When we give in to the fear of what the “no” will mean for us in the short term, we forego the goodness God has in store for us when we obediently, and joyfully say YES!

In the short term my sweet friend, who loves Jesus so much, had to deal with other people’s emotions, that weren’t pretty. In the long term however, she made a choice that will be better for her, her family and their pursuit of saying YES to God in even bigger ways.

So when (or if) you’re facing a decision that you know flies in the face of what the world wants, take a minute, an hour, a day, even more if you have to, and really think about what God wants. What does God want for your life? How does He want to use you, and the gifts He’s blessed you with to grow His Kingdom? Saying YES to God in big and small ways is always the better choice. It’s always the decision that you can stand firm in. It also means understanding that when you say YES to Him, you are going to also have to learn to say NO to the world.

Speaking of saying YES… I have been trying to read the book The Best Yes by author Lysa Terkeurst since July. July! I haven’t gotten through it, or even four chapters into it, because life keeps getting in the way. But now that it’s November (and if you read this post, you know what November means to me), I’m going to finish reading it! If you’ve read it, I would love to know your favorite quotes from the book (feel free to share in the comments below). So far my favorite quote from Lysa’s book is one that my friend Mary shared at the Pursuit Conference last month in Georgia. “A woman who lives with the stress of an overwhelmed schedule will often ache with the sadness of an underwhelmed soul.”