Often when I think of saying yes to Jesus, I think about the big decisions, the big callings. They are the kinds of yeses that cause you to uproot your life and change everything. The ones that make you feel inspired by others, while you quietly say to yourself, I could never do that.
These decisions and callings are testimonies that I always enjoy hearing. They make me dream a little and wonder, What if God called me to that? Could I say yes? What would it look like? How would we do it? Before I get too far along in my dream, I wake back to the reality around me and remember, Phew, that would be an impossible undertaking.
I’ve recently thought, though, that just because I’m not answering “yes” to the call to move my family or sell everything I have doesn’t mean that God isn’t asking me for my “yes” daily. My daily life should reflect how I can say yes to Him. From the moment my feet hit the floor until my head lies down at night, I need to be looking for opportunities to say yes.
I know we all think of the obvious yeses: I will read my Bible. I will pray. I will serve my family. I’ll attend Bible study, and I will go to church on Sunday. Those are the given ones, right? I know I can get caught up in my own bubble and say I’m doing what He’s asked me to do, but there’s so much more He wants to invite us into.
The Yes in the Everyday
Bringing this to God in prayer has shown me I have so many more opportunities to say yes. Luke 9:23 says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”
Maybe the big yes gets our attention, but the word daily is where most of our surrender actually happens.
I need to look daily at how I can serve Him. Starting with my attitude and reaction, it’s a chance to surrender myself and give it over to God. Denying myself to look more like Christ might be one of the hardest yeses there is. It’s daily relinquishing my selfish control and desires to say, Lord, this is Yours. Yes, I will give You my response and my reaction.
I have found that my reaction to my kids is gentler and more patient; it seeks to understand and doesn’t just react. I heard the Lord whisper, Are you willing to give Me your reaction? Are you willing to relinquish control of your response? My answer is, Yes, Lord; please take my reaction, please take my response, and make it more like You.
Pondering this whisper from the Lord has prompted me to ask: What other ways can I serve Him by saying yes throughout the day and the week?
Maybe surrender has been on my heart so much lately because I can’t sit here and pretend I have always been good at saying yes. In fact, over the last two years, I fought hard against a yes God was calling my family to. The kind of yes that hurts, that changes everything, and somehow, in the middle of it, makes you feel more alone and isolated than ever before.
My husband was obedient in the yes, and I fought him; I made it much more difficult for him. I wasn’t willing to surrender and give up my wants and my comforts for the next chapter God had for us.
I have recently surrendered to the “yes,” not begrudgingly, but genuinely embracing where He has called us. My heart posture changed, and God revealed His protection and His path for us. It was there all along, but in my bitterness, I was unwilling to see. I was stuck on myself and not willing to surrender to the yes.
Looking back, I wonder what I missed during those two years because I was so focused on what I was losing that I couldn’t see what God was doing. The path and His protection were there all along. My circumstances hadn’t suddenly changed when I finally surrendered; my heart posture had.
Living life ready and willing to say yes day to day can be inconvenient. It can mess up your plans and send you out of the house when you just wanted to be home. It can also mean saying no.
No, I can’t do that today, because my yes belongs to my home and my children.
Being ready to say yes to God doesn’t mean that you’re an open portal to everyone around you. God may be asking you to be home and present, and that’s absolutely beautiful. I don’t owe an explanation for every yes. When I know God has called me to something, I can trust Him with what that yes will require of me.
I am also aware that I can personally get caught in the trap of comfort and not wanting to go out or serve anyone else. I have to check my heart and make sure I am still saying yes to the right God.
Saying yes to God also might mean accepting help. (Insert gasp!! “I don’t need help; I can do it all myself and still help others.”)
While I was serving another family, God showed me this. A friend reached out to me and said, “You’ve been busy; you’ve been gone. What can I do to help you on Friday? We can clean, mow, garden, can the produce—you name it, and I will help.”
My first thought was, No way; I don’t need help. I’m helping and serving others. I’m completely capable.
Thankfully, that was my flesh, and I didn’t respond that way. I was quickly convicted and heard a still, small voice that said, “What makes you think you’re so special that you don’t need help?”
Ouch.
So I said yes. Yes to God, yes to the friend, and yes to the help. In our pride, we can convince ourselves that we’re capable, we’re the ones helping others, and we don’t actually need help. Those thoughts can make it hard to accept His blessings. It’s okay to say yes to help.
God calls us to different yeses; we all have different gifts, talents, and callings. Sometimes my yes is reaching out to the person God keeps bringing to mind. Sometimes it’s a meal for a tired family, watching someone’s children, cleaning a house, mowing a lawn, dropping off a coffee, or simply showing up.
Obedience No One Sees
None of these things are extraordinary. Most won’t ever be talked about again. But maybe that’s exactly the point.
This kind of obedience isn’t for attention or recognition. It’s humble obedience between you and the Holy Spirit—the kind that doesn’t need anyone else to know and doesn’t expect attention or thanks.
When God lays something on your heart, the true blessing comes in saying yes. When you think, There’s no way I can do that. I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. I have my own stuff I need to do, we can all come up with 100 excuses for why we can’t.
When we deny our selfishness and say, Lord, I don’t know how this is going to work, but yes, I will do that, our yes doesn’t guarantee that the road will be easy or that obedience won’t cost us something. But when God calls us, we can trust Him with what our yes will require.
Sometimes it is hard, and it stretches us in ways we didn’t want to be stretched. When we truly walk out what He has asked us to do, it draws us closer to Him. We may want to fight it; we may become uncomfortable. Obedience to God causes us to grow in ways we didn’t know we needed.
Serving our God is an act of worship, and worship restores us. We were created to worship our God, and not just on Sunday; He wants our worship every moment of every day.
Every day is a choice. It’s a choice for me to walk with Jesus and say yes to Him. Every day that yes will look different. Some days it’s surrender and setting myself aside. Some days it’s receiving, even when I don’t want to. Sometimes it’s a yes in my heart that no one else will ever know about. And maybe someday it will be another enormous yes that makes me think, How will we ever do this?
Ready for the Big Yes
But I’m beginning to believe that being ready for the big yes starts with being faithful in the everyday ones.
How am I going to serve You today, God? How am I going to put my selfishness aside and serve You rather than myself? How will I react? Will I love? Will I be kind to those closest to me? Will I faithfully serve You in my family, my church, my community, and wherever You have placed me in this season? Will my yes and my life look the same Monday through Saturday as they do on Sunday?
Maybe the everyday yes is where God prepares our hearts for the yes we don’t even know He’s going to ask for yet.
I believe the heart change, the softening, and the seeing God move happen here—in the everyday yes. A life of surrender isn’t built only in the big, life-changing moments. It’s built one ordinary yes at a time.
And maybe, if God asks me for another life-changing yes someday, I’ll be ready—not because I suddenly became brave enough to say it, but because I’ve been learning to surrender to Him all along.
