Do You Hear "No" When God Says "Yes"?

Blogging through the book “The Gospel of Yes”

Chapters 3 and 4

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Do not look to me.

If life were measured by weights and balances, I know I would fail. My heart is weak. I am weak.

I am a poor example of love.

Even as a mother, God gave me two people who I love more than I can imagine, but I still fall short. I cannot love them as much as I should, or show them at all times the perfect love of Christ, because I do not walk in that love as much as I should.

I fail.

If life were measured by weights and balances then there would be no way I would come out ahead. That is why Jesus came, because every last one of us fell short at the weigh-in of life.

Love is Messy Because We are Messy

Loving others is messy. This is a message I have heard from several sources lately and it reverberated through me yet again as I read these chapters of “The Gospel of Yes” by Mike Glenn.

Love, according to 1 Corinthians 13 is kind, gentle, patient, long suffering, and meek. Love is also the hardest thing we can ever learn to do. Love in its purest Christ-like form is the most unselfish, pure and giving thing. Yet, we cannot give this kind of love until we realize we need to receive this kind of love first.

Grace and love do not measure. They cover.

Somewhere along the way, we have believed a lie. A lie that says the promise of God’s grace and love are not enough. Somehow we have traded what Christ did as a free gift and the ultimate “yes” for mankind in for a substandard balance sheet of good deeds versus bad ones.

Too many of us are locked in a never ending cycle of “sin management” as Mike Glenn calls it.

Rather than focus on the “sin” all the time, if we focused on the “Yes” of God’s love we would live such drastically different and FREEING lives.

“Loving God and being loved by God allows us to love others with a depth that isn’t possible on our own. In the same way, being loved by God and loving God in return allows us to understand and therefore , to love ourselves in ways we can’t do by ourselves…Loving others is hard and can’t be done on your own. It keeps driving you back to God.” (The Gospel of Yes) 

As a mom, I know that this is true. When my girls, who are teenagers now, push the boundaries and limits of my natural love, I have to go to the source of all love and grace to love and parent them the way He calls me too.

I miss that mark all the time.

Often, as was the case yesterday, when I talk to my kids, I say one thing and they hear another.

Kids are trained to hear “no” from a young age, and the enemy is good at twisting words. So when I say I am concerned your path could lead to some hard consequences, they hear “I don’t believe in you” and “you aren’t good enough”. This is hard for a parent to realize and to try to overcome with their child.

(How much more is our Heavenly Father saddened by our stiff neck and clogged ears? When all we hear is no when God is really saying YES!?)

Yet I cannot back away from parenting my girls because I am afraid I might fail, or mess up. I cannot be afraid that I will be unpopular with them. This will be a reality. I will fail. I have failed before. I will fail again. I have to learn to ride the adventure that is parenting with as much faith, love, and grace as I can. I have to trust that love will be enough in the end.

How is our walk with Jesus any different? We have to dive in. Grab ahold of His coat tails and let Him lead us. We have to trust that what he did in love 2000 years ago (in the ultimate “yes” in all the history of mankind) is enough.

Our purpose is to point the way back to God for all mankind to see. When we live a life of no, rather than a life of yes in Christ, we diminish what Christ did and trade the truth for a lie.

We have to focus on Him more and on our own personal “nos” less. Mike writes, “…fill your mind with Christ, and let go of the rest.”

Question: What do you need to let go of?

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