Saying Yes

Verses
“Every gift God freely gives us is good and perfect, streaming down from the Father of lights, who shines from the heavens with no hidden shadow or darkness and is never subject to change.” James 1:17

Devotion
I was sick a few weeks ago and when a friend asked what she could bring me, I told her. Crazy right? I didn’t deflect or play the “I’m fine, really” card and go back and forth about it. Another friend asked if she could make me soup and I almost brushed the offer aside. It felt so weird, but I said thank you, soup sounds amazing.

It can feel so noble or “right” to turn down an offer of help or care, especially if there’s no critical need. But can I just be blunt? It’s not. For some this could sound like the most obvious point ever. But to others, you’re nodding your heads because you know. You know it’s hard to answer yes when someone asks if you want or need something.

The, “I know this is hard, please let me do something for you”, offers are an opportunity for both people to experience the gift of love. One to give it and the other to receive it. If we can’t move past our discomfort of saying yes to an offer of help or care, we will miss out on the amazing experience of being cared for.

This applies with each other and it applies with God. Like the verse above tells us, God is always giving good gifts. We first connect to our need for his gifts of love, of his presence, of all the ways He’s working for our good, etc. And then we can say yes, everyday. We don’t need to hold him at arms length in our hearts, thinking we can keep doing it all. We can learn to daily say yes to his care and attention, yes to his pleasure over us, yes to his peace. It seems so obvious but I’d challenge you to think about how easily you receive from God. How easily you “take” from Him. Being able to see God as always giving good gifts, results in prayers that can sound like, “thank you for your presence with me, that you care about the stress of……”. You’re actively taking from Him the gift of His presence and His care. It’s less about praying prayers that will get us what we want circumstantially, and it’s more about connecting with the good God, who’s always giving us good gifts, and working all things for our good. (that’s a lot of good)

Let’s be people who say yes. Yes to our friends and yes to God. Let’s walk through the discomfort that comes with being vulnerable with God and with others. Let’s see the “right” and “good” thing as saying yes to an offer of care or help. Let’s revel in the fact that He created us to need and to receive. From my own experience with this, I promise it gets easier and easier the more you do it 🙂