Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Isaiah 6: 8
Throughout scripture, God seems to be looking for those who will listen to Him and obey Him, those who will go out in His name, who will let their lights shine, who will go to the lion's den and say, "Though he slay me, yet will I love him."
Scripture is made up of stories of unlikely heroes who were willing to say "yes" to God's will and ways, whatever He asked them. Mary was one of those who said, "Be it done to me according to your will," when the angel told her she would bear the son of God. Her heart response to God, even though it would change the expectations and ways of her whole life, her immediate response was "yes."
What does it mean to be a "yes" person to God?
Advent is a time when we stop for moments every day to prepare our own hearts for the coming of Christ that we celebrate at Christmas. We ready ourselves to ponder what His coming means to us and to our world and then we prepare our own hearts to say yes.
If we do not take time every day to prepare our hearts to go the ways of God, we will find that we will find ourselves victims in our own circumstances. We will fear the ways ahead, or doubt that we will be able to complete the way we are being asked to walk. We will judge results by our own human calculation and often times miss the profoundly better and hidden ways of God.
We read in Isaiah that His ways are higher than our ways, His thoughts higher than ours. So if we truly believe that He is holy, better than us, omniscient, that "he knows best" then we will learn to become a "yes" person.
Often people will say to me, "You have had a privileged life but my life is very limited. How do you tell people in difficult circumstances to embrace their lives right where they are since they probably won't have the opportunities, blessings or privileges you have had?"
In this podcast, you will hear:
*A little bit about my own story that was lined with hardships and challenges each step of the way.
*God prompted me in every place to learn to say, "What lesson do you have for me at this juncture? How can I glorify you in this place? I believe that all things will work together for the good because I have committed myself to you and you are a good Father."
*Examples of people who said "Yes" to God: Peter, the widow of Zarephath, Rahab, David and so many more., Even Jesus gave so many examples of how He wanted us to trust Him--feeding of the 5000--did this miraculous feeding several times.
*Jesus asks us to, "Consider the lilies of the field" and to remember that God is concerned about the details of our lives. God is honored when we work hard, to practice obedience and to live by faith.
Clay and I have had to "work our tails off" to see the fruit God had prepared for us in life and through our ministry. But we realized that we were going to walk this road by faith and keep cultivating our work, live through money issues, medical issues, friend issues, church issues, marriage issues, through our trials, we learned to be "yes" people.
*Put away whining, complaining as it becomes a way of seeing life--"you have not given to me what I thought I deserved." Be careful what are you modeling to your children.
As we ponder advent, let us determine that we will be those who wait for God in our circumstances, to tell His story through us and to see what He is doing. Let us become a people waiting on God, who are willing to say "yes" to His will.
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Come to my Christmas Party!
When I welcome a guest into my home, I prepare my home, my food and the way we will spend our time. This week, I am preparing a fun party for all of us to share an evening together and I am getting excited to have you in my home.
If you can 't be present with me on Thursday night, you can register anyway and you can listen to the webcast later even if you can't be with us live.
My thought was all of you who are doing so much work right now, this season to serve others, might need a break and some soul filling so this is what my LIfegiving Christmas Tea is all about. So brew something warm and a little nibble and join me. Those who register will receive a recipe and a lovely pdf to use this Christmas.
Register HERE
If you are a member of Cultivating Life with Sally, you will receive this webcast as our guest and all of the other ones we do this year. (look in the email you received for December and you will find out how to access the Lifegiving Tea evening.)
This is a great time to join as we will be raising the price later this year. For registering for Cultivating Life, go HERE.
Please keep the honor code and do not share the webcast code with those who have not registered. Thanks for your support of our ministry projects by participating.