It was my wife’s birthday yesterday.
Here’s what I did for her in the past few days:
(1) I gave her a special gift. I bought a nice notebook and I filled each page with a list of the things she does that make me love her more. And she adored it so much, she cried for a long time while reading that notebook. One of the qualities that I love about her: Mababaw ang kanyang kaligayahan. (She is very easy to please.) The notebook cost me P253.
(2) In front of 5000+ people at the Feast, I gave her a bouquet of pink roses and sang a love song to her.
(3) We had a fun lunch celebration with her side and my side of the family;
(4) I whisked her to a nice hotel. A one night stand. 😉
I’m enjoying my relationship with my wife because once upon a time, I said Yes to God to love my wife for the rest of my life.
If I look back, I noticed that all the great things in my life started with that beautiful word: Yes.
God Is Calling You To Say Yes
Once upon a time, Mary was called by God.
And saying Yes to that call changed her life forever.
The Bible describes Mary’s call: In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy God sent the angel Gabriel. God sent the angel Gabriel to a town in Galilee named Nazareth. (Luke 1:26-38)
Through this story, God is telling you to say Yes to Him too.
Even if you think you’re ordinary.
“No One Is Ordinary!”
Mary lived in Nazareth. If you lived at that time, you would have said, “Naza… what? Where is that?”
Nazareth was a tiny, poor barrio. (I’m sure there was no Jollibee or Shoemart in it.) Nazareth was so tiny, there were probably 20 families living in it, all of them dirt poor.
If you notice, God’s criteria for choosing the mother of Jesus were very different from our criteria.
If God used our criteria, He would have chosen a woman from imperial Rome or from religious Jerusalem. He would have chosen a beautiful princess. Someone with royalty. Someone who had breeding. Someone who was educated. But no. He chose a young poor woman from a tiny barrio that very few people knew.
Why? Because He wanted to tell the world one thing: In His eyes, no one is ordinary. God tells you now, “You’re not ordinary.”
Think about it. Mary was a big nobody. Mary was insignificant. Mary was uneducated. Yet God chose her to become the mother of Jesus.
Why? When God saw Mary, He didn’t just see a 14-year old girl from faraway Nazareth. God already saw the woman mentioned in the book of Revelations–a woman clothed with sun, the moon at her feet, and the 12 stars as her crown.
Listen carefully. God deals with you not based on your history but on your destiny. He relates to you not based on who you are now, but who you will become.
So even if you think you’re ordinary, say Yes to Him.
Why You Need To Say Yes
Here’s a fact: All new things start only with Yes.
A new relationship doesn’t start if you don’t say Yes. A new job doesn’t start unless you say Yes. A new exercise, or diet, or project, or ministry, or service, or blessing, or miracle doesn’t start unless you say Yes.
You don’t go into a new level in your life unless you say Yes.
Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, may it happen to me as you have said.”
This was Mary’s Yes. And Christmas happened.
When I was 12 years old, I said Yes to God. And I kept saying Yes ever since.
Saying Yes changed my life.
When you say Yes, you change your life forever.
Saying Yes means three important things:
1. YES Means Giving Your Trust
Some say that being a spiritual person will make your life dull. Mediocre. Boring.
I beg to disagree!
When I said Yes to God, my life has been the wildest, most thrilling, heart-stopping, adrenalin-pumping adventure. Compared to my life, the life of Indiana Jones is pretty boring!
Because I said Yes to Him, I’ve been through incredible adventures. (All by God’s mercy. It has nothing to do with me!)
When I was 13, I said Yes to give my first talk in a tiny prayer meeting. I never knew that I’d end up preaching in 14 countries all over the world–and preaching to 5000+ people every Sunday at the Feast at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).
When I was 14, I led the first prayer meeting of the Light of Jesus Family. It was a tiny group of 30 people in a cramped garage. I never knew that three decades later, it would grow to a ministry spanning the globe.
When I was 14, I lived in a slum area, doing ministry among the poorest of the poor. I never knew that one day, I’d live in the boondocks for three years, without electricity and running water, building our Anawim ministry for the abandoned elderly.
When I was 20, I wrote my first book. I never knew that one day, I’d be an author of 21 books that would be read by hundreds of thousands. (Recently, a woman came up to me with tears in her eyes and she said, “Bo, your book saved my life. I was so depressed, and then I picked your book, and I was healed.” It’s moving experiences like these that make all the effort of writing books for me all worth it.)
When you say Yes to God, you’re saying Yes to the Unknown.
He will lead you to lands you can’t even imagine now.
You don’t know what exactly will happen.
That’s why Yes requires Trust.
Submission is trust.
You need to trust that the best is yet to come.
2. YES Means Giving Your Freedom
I’ve now learned that freedom doesn’t come from insisting your own way. Freedom doesn’t come being stubborn.
Freedom comes from submission.
Paradoxically, when you bind yourself to God, when you put yourself at His disposal, when you surrender your freedom to God, that’s when you experience true freedom.
Friend, submit yourself to God today!
Without excuses!
Which brings us to the third meaning of Yes.
3. Yes Means Giving Your Limitations
After the Angel told Mary she was going to give birth to Jesus, Mary said to the angel, “I am a virgin. How, then, can this be?”
Others in the Bible had other excuses too when God called them.
Moses said, “I’m not a good speaker.”
Jeremiah said, “I’m too young.”
Abraham said, “I’m too old.”
Peter said, “I’m too sinful.”
People have not changed. Human nature has not changed.
To this day, we like giving excuses. We like explaining why God’s Call is impossible:
“I’m too poor.”
“I don’t have time.”
“I’m too busy.”
“I’m not educated enough.”
“I’m not rich enough.”
“I’m not gifted enough.”
But here’s what I found out about excuses: Your excuse is His excuse to manifest His power. Give your limitations to Him. Because your limitation is God’s stage for His miracles.
What is your limitation? Your weakness?
Offer it to God now.
Say YES to Him.
Let Him use you–and welcome you to a world you have yet to imagine.
May your dreams come true,
Bo Sanchez
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