A New Transition is the next part of the life series that started with Life and Shenanigans. In this we'll walk through what God has in store for the next 96 days before I am set to be in Oregon for YWAM. I can't wait to journey through the next 96...
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At Victory there was a mantra we recited every Sunday morning. We'd hold our Bibles in the air and in enthusiastic unison we would say, "This is my Bible. It is the standard I live my life by. I am a spirit filled believer sustained by my relationship with the Lord, empowered to my commitment to community, and expressed through outreach to others. Therefore I can say, YES God! and NO devil!"
Today, every church service with Community Harvest COG was somehow geared to giving our yes to God. The morning service was about allowing him to be our comforter, saying yes to the comforter. The mid-afternoon service was about saying yes to waiting on His timing. The evening service was about giving Him our yes in all that we do. About saying, "here I am, Lord! SEND ME!"
Everyday I pray a very simple prayer, "Lord. I give you my yeses. I give you all my yeses. You are the Potter. I'm the clay. Mold me and shape me, Lord." It wasn't until today that the full impact of that hit me.
Obviously I gave Him my yes when I invited Jesus into my life. I gave Him my yes when I applied to YWAM. I gave Him my yes when I uprooted my life to begin going to Community Harvest. I gave Him my yes when I accepted the call into His ministry and decided to pursue education at Lee University. All of this is great. However, as much as God wants our yeses in the big things, He wants them even more in our little things. If we don't obey Him in the little things, we won't obey Him in the big things.
If God says raise your hands during worship, you raise your hands. If He says to shout amen during the sermon, you shout amen. If He tells you to dance, you dance. If He tells you to run, you run. If He tells you to jump, you jump. He won't ask you to do the big things until you obey Him in the little things. Luke 12:48 says, "But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked." Say YES in all the everyday areas of your life, and then God will entrust more in you.
Today I realized that I need to give God my yes in the small everyday things as much as I do in the things that appear larger to me. However, God's size perspective is different than ours. Let's take a look at the NYC skyline.
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We'll call the New World Trade Center our individual calls into our particular ministry purpose and the other buildings our everyday things. To our perspective, the NWTC is very obviously a lot larger than all the other buildings, including the Empire State Building.
Now let's look at "God's view" of the same image
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God's view, metaphorically, is like that of our phones GPS. There's no obvious differentiation in the heights of the buildings. Similarly, there's no differentiation in size and importance of the different things He asks us to obey Him in. He sees saying yes to raising our hands during worship as the same as saying yes to accepting a call into a particular form of ministry.
Abba, Father, I give You my yeses. I give You all my yeses. I give You my yes in my worship. I give You my yes in my amens. If You tell me to shout, I'll shout. If you tell me to run, I'll run. To dance, I'll dance. To jump, I'll jump. I give You my yeses in all that I do, in all that I am. You are the Potter. I am the clay. Mold me and shape me. Have Your way.
