yes

 

Isn’t it pretty awesome when you ask God for something, and He answers with a decided “Yes”?



This week I learned something about when God says yes.

His yes doesn’t always sound like yes. Sometimes it sounds more like si or ja or oui, or even oo. It’s still an affirmative, but it doesn’t sound the way we expected it to—it’s not quite our native language.

You see, I spent most of the past week at the county fair, where I show lambs. I asked God from the bottom of my heart to give me opportunities to share Him with others. When I asked, I was thinking along the lines of giving someone a tract, or feeling God put a complete stranger on my heart. That was my version of “Yes.”

God’s was different. I didn’t understand it at first; it was like another language. I didn’t get any out-of-the-blue tug toward a stranger. I didn’t randomly give out tracts. But I did find a million opportunities to be joyful when I would rather have been crabby. I did get the “What are you doing after you graduate?” question a lot, and found it an amazing chance to explain that I’d like to go to Bible school to learn about my Lord. And I got a completely unexpected chance to explain the Wordless Book to someone.

It reminded me of something I learned in church about this verse:

According to my pastor, this command in the original language doesn’t just mean go; it means while you’re going. So even though walking out of the house with the sole purpose of sharing the Gospel can be an amazing way to do it, there are also countless opportunities to share the Gospel when you’re heading out into day to day life. The keys for me were 1) to pay attention when the opportunities arose and 2) not to downplay my opportunities as “lesser” just because they weren’t sudden and unmistakable.

So that’s my latest lesson in foreign language. :)