The O-word has come off before as restrictive and oppressive to me.
When someone would rattle off in coffee conversations or in a church message about obedience to God, I’d silently cringe and squirm because I was trained by independent American culture that this word is doused with a bitter taste. What came to mind was this image of a child constantly being scolded for stepping out of line with little warmth or affection imparted from parent to child; that there is only discipline in harshness rather than in love.
I always remind myself that with God, obedience is asked of us in love instead of cruelty. God isn’t playing our lives as though we have strings attached to us performing puppetry. Instead I believe God desires and longs for us to choose to walk in the fullness of who we are in Him and how to emanate His character in our relationships with others. We choose to listen, commune with other believers, and allow the shaping of our hearts to be in His hands instead of our manipulative ones.
He will speak to us in His own way, but He is certainly speaking not because we’re His property in a disconnected, impersonal way but instead He is speaking to us as a beloved son or daughter. He is the perfect Father. We are taken care of and we are constantly invited with opportunities or with decisions to shift into this person that is continually growing, abides in love, and connects with other people in a deeper level than how the game turned out the other night or who so-and-so are dating now.
In a snap, I can tell you that I’ve backed out of saying yes to what God was asking of me multiple times.
Moses and I are tight; what he said to God in Exodus when God was asking obedience from him for a crazy, higher, amazing purpose is the exact verbiage I’ve stammered to God too.
If unsure of who Moses is, this is the guy that was called by God to go to Egypt because God’s people the Israelites were still in slavery to the Egyptians under their leader called a Pharoah. This Pharoah feared the Israelites or God’s people because he believed they would overthrow the Egyptians if they united.
In Exodus 3, this is where the famous burning bush appeared and where God called Moses into greater things. The first thing out of Moses mouth in Exodus 11 when God explains He would like Moses to go free His people is “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
“I’m not worthy. I’m not the right person.” Moses doesn’t believe this whole “free the people” thing is a gig for him and that God chose wrong.
As God goes into fine detail about what Moses needs to do and reassuring him that He would be with him the whole time, Moses throws every excuse to wiggle out of a purpose God sets before him.
“What if they don’t believe me? What if they don’t listen to me? What if they doubt me?” And then after God does two miracles still reassuring Moses, Moses jumps into how he isn’t eloquent and doesn’t speak well. Even when God tells him that God Himself would be helping him speak the response given is…
“Please send someone else.”
I don’t know about you, but I’ve cozied up in situations and scenarios to the someone else mentality. It’s safer, easier, and more comfortable for us to say no instead of putting a pinky outside our circle of security and comfort.
I want a yes year.
I pray that you have a year of yes to God too.
We will experience little to no transformation with the Lord within the lives of others and within the hearts of ourselves if our instinct is to deny God. Nothing will occur if our default reaction is hesitating at the first feeling of fear or uncertainty causing us to quickly back out before we don’t like it.
If our vision is to see a changed world, then we need to realize that we may be asked by God in different scenarios and in different conversations to create ripples instead of passively absorbing our surroundings without some kind of measure of action. I’ve learned this over and over while at launch with my team.
Right now my squad/team have completed the few days at launch in Atlanta, Georgia for more training and have successfully completed almost half of our travel day. We’re sitting in the food court at the New York airport squished up to the rails waiting to board our connecting flight to Norway to then FINALLY begin our first month of ministry with the Serbian people. It will particularly be with youth and I will write a blog with details after a few days in our ministry site in Serbia!
While sitting here I asked my teammate to take a picture of the key I now wear around my neck with the engraved words “Yes Lord.” All my teammates were given an engraved word on a key by one of our squad mentors (someone that invests in us as people and as a team) who communed with the Lord of what God would desire us to live out in these coming months. “Yes, Lord” was mine that I knew at training camp and was reaffirmed with while in Georgia with the organization for launch.
It’s time to continue saying yes even when it is difficult because God has never let down those who follow and believe in Him. Even when it at times seems like He did when we focus on what we perceive as failed circumstances.
Moses still went to the Pharoah and His people in Egypt. Eventually after some hardship with plagues, His people were set free. Moses was a man in the Bible that God Himself spoke with on the regular and laid him to rest when he died. Moses hesitated but he left to go and do what God clearly asked of him. And the entire Bible would be off and different without him.
Moses was just like us. Imagine if you could shift history. Not only history now but be a piece of an eternal future for an individual or nation. Again, I want a year of a frightening bold yes. Just like with Moses, God never chooses wrong and never asks us to do something by mistake.
