The Inconvenient Truth of God's Yes

My Struggle...

The moments of God's loudest yes for me seem to always be in my weakest moments of no for myself.

I don't think I can, He says Yes, I made a way.

I say no one will listen, He says Yes, I am paying attention.

I say I want to give up, He says I called you out of the darkness into the light, now MOVE FORWARD.

I cannot tell you how many times, in the last week alone, I have doubted myself. I have questioned my calling. I have struggled with my purpose. Ironic? Maybe. Human? Absolutely.

As I have read The Gospel of Yes by Mike Glenn, I have warred with my ideas of self worth, calling, purpose, and relationships. I have been challenged on every level. Chapters 11 and 12 have been no different.

I hope you have been reading along. That is what Blogging through the Book is about. Yet, if you have not, I hope what you read here resonates with you. (By the way, you can get the book by visiting my Discover Shopping page or by visiting Amazon.com - an affiliate link.)

There are two things I want to touch on today.

The first is marriage. 

As I read these chapters I found my self agreeing with large sections of text. I once foolishly believed that loving another person meant you found your other half. I found that after entering a marriage under this assumption left me feeling more lonely than before I married. Why? Because when  you are wounded, another wounded person cannot make you whole.

Instead, when we are whole, when we are in Christ, living our yes, we can fully live out our lives with freedom. Knowing that the person we are married to is responsible for their lives and we are there to partner with them as they pursue God's yes, just as they are there as we pursue our yes in God. This creates a need-free environment.

What do I mean? I mean that instead of looking to another flawed human for your needs, you can look to The Source for all your needs. God's grace is sufficient. He supplies all you need. No other human can do that.

Marriage is a beautiful and Godly thing. It is also meant to edify and not drain us. If your marriage is not edifying you, then you may not be living your "yes" in God. You may be looking to the wrong source for your happiness. It will never be that person you lay next to at night. Your yes can only be found in God.

When we are freely and completely invested in God's yes for our lives, it becomes easy to let go and stop trying to control our spouses. It gets easier to forgive their shortcomings because we see God's yes for them active in their lives just as it is active in ours. By finding our yes, we are free to be happy independently of our spouse, yet made one in God (this is the mystery Paul spoke of concerning marriage). Now we can look to our spouses for companionship and encouragement, not spiritual sustenance and emotional anchoring.

There is a phrase that I have heard bandied about in the church: "Hurting people hurt people". This is often true.  Yet, what if we turned that around? "Whole people love people wholly."

This would change the very nature of every relationship we have. Our spousal relationships, our parental relationships, and even our peer relationships would experience an overhaul.

This brings me to my second point.

How should we interact with our world?

I cannot speak for you. I can only speak for myself. Here I have failed. I have isolated myself in my own comfort. I sit behind my computer in my comfortable chair in my comfortably air conditioned house and I ask for God to soften my heart toward the world.

I have been pious and I have been weak.

I am not saying that we should sell all and live in huts to prove we love Jesus. I am saying that laying down our lives to follow Him should not be convenient. It is not convenient. I can not live a life of convenience if I am going to live out my Yes in God.

For me, it means that moments of stretching and discomfort in my life should occur regularly. I should come to the end of me more often than I should want to because I am pouring into other people's lives. This is what God means when He calls us His vessels. We are meant to be filled with His love, His yes, to pour out into the hurting around us. Until we are emptied and need to be filled again.

Living life that way sounds exhausting doesn't it? It also sounds like the heart of my Father. He poured out all He had in His son. His heart hung on a tree. Blanketed by the sin of the world until it was so dark it nearly rent the universe in two. He literally had to turn his face away from the very creation He sustained. His love put everything on the line. For me. For you. For the world.

How can I do any less?

Today, I will rest in Him, get filled as much as I can by His presence and then pour myself into serving. Into giving. I will empty myself into others. It may be into my children, it may be into my neighbor, but I will hold nothing back. I will love the way I am loved. I will love with God's Yes.

Join the Conversation: 

Have you ever felt stretched beyond your limits by something God asked you to do? Can you share what you learned in that experience? Leave a comment below.


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More Like Jesus

Photo Credit: Creative Commons

Love in Action

He was close to the end of his ministry. He had rode in on a donkey colt and been glorified among the people. What lay ahead was his trial and then his death.

In a quiet moment alone with the ones he had grown to love as a human Jesus did something extraordinary. He showed them what it is to really serve.

The feet were culturally the lowliest part of a person. This is still true in the Middle East today. This is why it is so insulting to get a shoe thrown at you.

In Jesus’ time the one who was hired last in a house would wash the feet of the travelers or guests that came in to the house. Jesus did it himself: lovingly and quietly.

Jesus did this so we would know that service is the action behind love.

Service No One Can See

In Colossians 3:23 Paul writes “everything you do- do as until the Lord”. This scripture can be applied to many things, but right now I want to look at service. What are you “doing” in the kingdom?

It could be singing in church, or preaching, or teaching a Sunday school class, but what about the less glamorous jobs? Driving kids to camp on a 14 hour round trip or sitting in a back office filing, or cleaning the church toilets? These things are just as important as singing, as teaching, as preaching.

Yet we often get a bad attitude about doing these kinds of jobs.

Get Over Yourself

Servants serve. They work. Living an all-out, full tilt, anything for Jesus kind of life means you will get your hands dirty. You will have to lay aside your preferences and your ego and sit in the back room for a while.

“Those who love their lives will lose them, and those who hate their lives in this world will keep them forever. Whoever serves me must follow me. Wherever I am, there my servant will also be. My Father will honor whoever serves me.” John 12:25-26

A Servant’s Heart

 Nothing matters unless it is coupled with love and faithfulness. Jesus was fully Lord and fully man. As a man he had grown to love the 12. He had lived with, eaten with, laughed with, and cried with these men. He knew them.

He knew who would betray him and he knew who would serve him until death. He knew what was coming and he chose to lower himself and prove a point.

Love does.

Love does the things no one else wants to do. Love does the hard things. Love does the things no one sees. Love serves the ones who don’t deserve it and the ones who do. Love serves even when it has the time and even when the time is growing short.

Love does. Jesus did. So should we.

Preaching to the Choir

I do not say these things to judge you. I say them because I was challenged by this story. 

In my mind’s eye I saw my Jesus, tired from a long day, disrobe and take on the garments of the lowliest servant. Gather the water, and then walk to the first disciple.

Can you see it?

He washed their feet. Like a slave or a servant would do. 

Then Jesus, moving on from that first disciple, lifting the basin, dumping out the old water, getting new water for the next person did this 11 more times. Over and over he served the ones who were with him. He served and loved even when it was not convenient. Oh that I can be like Jesus!

I want to do as Jesus did. I want to serve others in love.

Over and over.

Whether they deserve it or not, whether they appreciate it or not, I want to serve like Jesus.

Even when I am tired and sore, even when it is hard, even when the day has been long and all I want to do is rest, I want to serve.

I want to be like Jesus.

Lord, let me never forget the moment I saw your heart. That quiet moment, at the end of the day, when you were tired and nearing the end. You washed their feet. You served. You loved. Give me your heart Father. Give me your servant’s heart.

Waiting is Work!

We talked yesterday about God’s timing and how He wants us to wait. Waiting is an active service to God though, and not sitting on our backsides twirling our thumbs.  

Let’s look at the text again. Isaiah 30:18. (The Message) But God's not finished. He's waiting around to be gracious to you. He's gathering strength to show mercy to you. God takes the time to do everything right-everything. Those who wait around for him are the lucky ones. 19 Oh yes, people of Zion, citizens of Jerusalem, your time of tears is over. Cry for help and you'll find its grace and more grace. The moment he hears, he'll answer. 20 just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, 21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road."22 You'll scrap your expensive and fashionable god-images. You'll throw them in the trash as so much garbage, saying, "Good riddance!" 23 God will provide rain for the seeds you sow. The grain that grows will be abundant. Your cattle will range far and wide. 24 oblivious to war and earthquake, the oxen and donkeys you use for hauling and plowing will be fed well 25 near running brooks that flow freely from mountains and hills.

Now let’s look at verses 19 and 21. First, I feel like I should say that Ecclesiastes is clear about there being a time for everything at one time or another and there is a time for crying, but there is a time for rejoicing too. Here I believe God is saying that time begins when we FIND GRACE. What does this mean? Well I believe it means salvation. The children of Israel were locked in the law, a cyclical situation that could never truly bring freedom. Grace, salvation, comes when we cry out to God and once freedom is received no one can take it away. (Ephesians 2:8-9)  When we cry out to God, He hears, and He moved toward us. (Luke 15:11-32)

So now that God has moved toward us, brought us salvation through grace (Romans 3:22-25) what does He do next? Because salvation IS NOT enough, If it was, God  would immediately take us to heaven the moment we were saved and over half of the New Testament would not have needed to be written. Once we are saved, God gives us a teacher: the Holy Spirit.  20 just as the Master kept you alive during the hard times, he'll keep your teacher alive and present among you. Your teacher will be right there, local and on the job, 21 urging you on whenever you wander left or right: "This is the right road. Walk down this road. “

I Corinthians 2:13 (KJV) says “Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.”

So now when we think about waiting, it is not such a lonely existence. We have already said we should be moving, but we do not do it alone. We move and breathe IN HIM and HIM in us. (Acts 17:28)  As He guides and teaches us what path to take the Spirit is a vital part of our lives as Christians. When we look at the word for Spirit in Strong’s Concordance (4151) it says this: the third person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit, coequal, coeternal with the Father and the Son sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes his personality and character (the \\Holy\\ Spirit) sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes his work and power (the Spirit of \\Truth\\) the spiritual nature of Christ, higher than the highest angels and equal to God, the divine nature of Christ

He will tell us what paths to avoid and most importantly He will show us which one to take.  The Holy Spirit will lead us the WAY we should go while we wait. I call this Server training. Stay with me…

A server (that politically correct word for waiter) is only as good as his/her training. If he has never been taught to serve from the right side, then he might make his guests uncomfortable or worse yet, mistakenly spill hot food on someone. We are the same. We must be trained (taught) by the Holy Spirit to do things the right way: God’s way.  Who do we serve? Well we serve God by serving one another. (Mark 10:45) No matter what your “dream” is that you are waiting on, you must train. Yesterday we talked about the runner, training for a marathon, today a waiter, serving the body. Do you get the theme? Waiting is work. I am reminded of Nehemiah 6::9. The enemy has tormented us into believing that waiting means being forgotten, and even abandoned. We must remember that WAITING really means working, and we must ask God to strengthen our hands for the task.

Be blessed and be a blessing and remember that training is work and work is a verb! 

Hot Coal, Pew Warmer, or Cold Fish?

Romans 8:11-14 says this: (The Message)


It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!  So don't you see that we don't owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There's nothing in it for us, nothing at all. The best thing to do is give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God's Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go! This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike "What's next, Papa?"


If you are a follower of Christ and you are not asking “what’s next Papa?” you may be living a stale, watered down version of Christianity.


Hey, I have been here! Many times! I am not here to pass judgment, but I know that the alternative is so much better. I have heard people who have been Christians over 30, 40 years, say, ‘O, look at the new Christian, all fired up for Jesus, isn’t that sweet?’ (If you didn’t hear a Southern accent when you read that, there must be something wrong….lol) Well, I have been a Christian for exactly 30 years and in that time I have been a hot coal, I have been a pew warmer and I have been a cold fish (caught by the love of Jesus, just not living the way I should).


I think of so many Christians that have taken off since their re-birth and I start to feel that twinge… you know the one: jealousy, covetousness, envy…. And I have to stop and repent every time. Listen you are you, not someone else and I am me. God expects us to compare ourselves to no one except JESUS! So when I wonder about my “place” in the kingdom of God, first I remember that God chose me to live my life. Jeremiah 1:5 says He knew me while I was still in my mother’s womb. Secondly I have to remember that envy is something I can have no part of. (James 3:16) I don’t want to open the door to confusion and evil in my life. 

Been there, done that, did not buy the T-shirt.

Everyone has a place in the kingdom. We each have different talents, and callings. I Corinthians 12:4-8a says God's various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. 5 God's various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God's Spirit. 6 God's various expressions of power are in action everywhere; but God himself is behind it all. 7 Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! 8 The variety is wonderful!


I once watched Joyce Meyer explain this at a church service in my area and I have never seen a better example since. She took off her ring, her shoe, and her glasses and she put the ring on her eye, the shoe on her hand and rested the glasses on her foot. These items all have a function on her body. But in the wrong place, they hinder more than help. A ring should not want to be a pair of glasses, or a shoe a ring, etc.… When you find your calling you know. How? You will fit, you will excel, and you will be excited to do what you do. Be blessed and be a blessing. Remember, go is a verb!