Featured Favorite: The “Yes” God wants from us
What God wants is for us to say “yes” to him and “no” to everything else. Of the millions of good things available to us, he wants us to have the best. That’s because he loves us so much. He loved us, even while we were yet sinners.
Every one of us doubts that we are loved. After all, each one of us knows who “we” are. It surprises us when someone loves us completely and thoroughly. But the Lord is after us to believe it. He wants us to know that he loves us inside and out.
We can begin by saying “yes” to believing that we are worthy of God’s love. We can say “yes” to believing deep within our being, that God, our Creator and Savior, loves us. We belong to him. He loves and cherishes us. He wants to protect us with his gift of faith and trust in him. Before we can serve him and love him fully we must first say “yes”’ to letting him love us.
How does he convince us that he loves us? That’s up to us. He’ll do whatever it takes to convince us, but not against our free will. When we can believe it, then we can try it on. Act like he loves us by loving others the same way he love us. By sharing his love we prove to ourselves and to them how much he loves us.
When we know in our hearts that we are precious in his eyes, then we can reject sin and become holy. That’s because God called us to holiness. He wants us to renounce sin and to live holy lives. Only then can we fully grow into the image and likeness of God. When we’re holy that’s when we can get in there and play the full part that he has for us. We can fully become his image and likeness.
Each of us can discover his vision for how he wants to love us through others and others through us. Our culture trains us for instant gratification but we are mistaken if we believe that we can just jump into whatever we want to see happen in our lives. That’s not God’s way. We have to listen for the steps, for the little bitty things that help us move towards his will for us.
He calls each of us to a specific purpose. No part of his work is more important than another part. Each living stone builds up his kingdom. He wants us to say “yes” to him for the unique purpose for which he created us. Don’t worry about anything else. We can’t do everything, nor can we be everything to everyone. Only God is everything.
The “yes” God wants from us has no hint of wanting or expecting control. The “yes” that God wants is Mary’s “yes” of complete surrender. Many things stand in the way of our wholehearted “yes” to God. Yet no obstacle is stronger than his grace if we allow it to penetrate through all the obstacles and into the depths of our hearts.
The choice is two-sided. What does God want us to say “no” to in our lives so that our “yes’ to him can fulfill his purpose for us?
(© 2014 Nancy H C Ward)
Great article Nancy, especially where you state near the end, “He wants us to say “yes” to him for the unique purpose for which he created us. Don’t worry about anything else. ” With my surrender, I’m hanging on that yes with trust, and trying not to worry about what could get in the way – in His way – since He is already there. Giving control to God is the only way.
Virginia. trust God that he created you for a specific purpose. You have found his purpose in serving him in a unique way in the Church. That is part of your purpose as he reveals it to you. The hard task of surrender shows us that we never quite arrive at our destination, but we follow our destiny as best we understand it. Surrender gets easier as we enjoy living as God created us to live as his beloved children.
Lots to ponder in this post Nancy – I know from my own experience that it was so difficult to live out God’s will for my life before I truly understood and experienced his great love for me. What a difference that made! Your final challenge about the two-side choice is definitely one I will pray and journal about!
Love makes all the difference and God IS Love. When we “get it” it’s not as difficult as we made it before to choose Love. The hard part is to keep focused on Love when everything around us and many things within us tempt us, distract us, assault us and manipulate us. All those spirits are not of God, but often hard to come against.
Sometimes we need to sit quietly and just let God love us. Like Leslie said, we can’t do a thing to make ourselves worthy of God’s love, yet He loves us anyway. All He wants is for us to turn to Him and love Him back, reserving none of our heart for anything else. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about God loving each of us because He died for us – that He came here purposely to do that. If we are thinking poorly of ourselves we are missing the point that we are of inestimable value because Jesus died for us individually. I’m still trying to get a grip on the enormity of that.
Nancy, tell us more about this painting, please! Who’s the artist. I agree that it’s great for this post.
Found it at wikimedia commons. It’s “The Annunciation” by Henry Ossawa Tanner, I’ll share the link:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Ossawa_Tanner,_American_%28active_France%29_-_The_Annunciation_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
I agree with Leslie. Beautiful post and the art work chosen speaks volumes! That is what I love about the Catholic faith, we have truth and the beauty of the art work, all the smells and bells! This is the key Nancy, you are so right! Accepting God's love for us…with all the warts and bruises. HE loves us as we are but loves us too much to leave us the way we are! Thanks for another beautiful and inspiring blog!
Leslie and Diane – I’m so glad that my words touched your heart the way they touched mine when they first came to me. You both confirm that my artwork is important. As a journalist I tend to emphasize the words and then find a little artwork to catch the readers’s eye. Now I see how important it is to select an appropriate and inspiring picture to enhance the message. I’m learning!
I’ve never seen that painting before – and it really struck me. All of what you said is true, too, but your choice of art spoke to my heart. 🙂
I think many of us confuse “knowing we are worthy of God’s love” with somehow becoming better people so that we can become worthy of God’s love – and who can do that, faced with the awesome goodness of God versus the reality of fallen humanity? I read another blog yesterday, at http://countyroad21.com/ , where the author talks about God’s mercy in loving us so tenderly even when we are disgusting. That’s the point we truly need to understand. Surrender to such mercy is not difficult.