Your greatest act of bravery ever will be to say “yes” to God.
When you answer the brave ‘yes’ to live for Him alone. Saying “no” to the people-pleasing and parched colouring within the lines of the world’s expectations. The dare to step away from the crowd and live these words: “I’ll go where you go, Lord”.
Before you can start saying the right “yeses” you’ll need to understand this: your life is not your own.
Your life is the gift you’ve been given. This one life; to be lived well. To be lived for Him alone.
After you may have given your life back to Him at the altar of grace, you’ll have to do a laying down of your life with each painful ‘yes’ you say to Him each and everyday.
Yes to being set apart. Yes to solitude. Yes to being scoffed and jeered at. Yes to being misunderstood.
This yes to God, will surely cost you. But this is the glorious cost of bravery.
I used to get my “yeses” and “nos” all wrong. I’d say “yes” to expectations and ‘no” to the will of God.
With all of these “yeses” there was an aim to people-please, there was a constant giving away of myself to things I knew were boxing me in. And yet I was trying to silence the desire and will of God that was tugging at me for more.
After I gave my life to Christ, many times, God would dare me to talk about Him more freely and openly. And call on the name of Jesus.
This would cost me.
And many times, I said no. It was easier. To fit in. To not shake the nest.
But I soon understood that I was pursuing comfort at the expense of purpose.
If we are asking for the will of God for our lives, how do we think we could ever live it without a cost?
There are many of us trapped by opinions and expectations that leave us sitting on our hands while the world is spinning with or without us.
While God is looking for brave women who will dare to say “yes” to being His follower. To dancing to His beat alone. To living for His audience alone. For His glorious applause alone.
Where are those ready to break away from the incarceration of opinions? Where are those of us ready to own our place in the race? Those ready to follow God where He is leading.
Remember this: to say that brave ‘yes’ to God, you’ll have to know that this was the ‘yes’ you were created for.
This is your freeing “yes”.
Not the “yes” that will have you denying the world your authentic self. Not the “yes” that helps you play it safe.
But the “yes” that has you running to the Cross, because you’re running half mad with this biting more than you can chew. With this bravery that leaves you with just a sling and a stone. The “yes” that has you running towards things that others are running away from. The “yes” that has you believing in that person that no one else will give a chance.
The “yes” that has you walking upside down. The “yes” that nails your will to the Cross as you take up His own.
This is your freeing “yes”.
Write this one on your heart: your greatest brave “yes” to God will birth every brave yes you will ever answer. He always leads you where you will need Him.
About Rayo Adegoke
When Rayo Adegoke is not writing to somehow give hope and promote well-being for orphans and vulnerable children through her work at Catholic Relief Services, you’ll find her penning her heart about the fight for everyday joy on her blog: Iseejoy.
