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One of the most powerful words in the English language has just two letters in it.
It begins with the letter “N” and ends with the letter “O”.
As Christians we can be under so much pressure to say yes to everything, and church leaders can be notorious for forgetting that the people who are giving of their time to serve in churches, how ever important that particular ministry may appear, also have lives to live and church is just one small piece of that.
Being part of a church family is really important. The bible goes to great lengths to remind us of the importance of exactly this! But our primary ministry is always to our family, especially if we are married or have children.
Clive Calver, who once led the Evangelical Alliance in the UK had to learn to say the word ‘No’. It reached a point where he realised he could have been in perhaps 3 or 4 meetings every night, or more, ever single day of the week. He didn’t like to say no. But, when he realised he had more meetings than evenings that he was needed at, saying no became something he was able to start saying. With maturity there is a certain degree of wisdom. With wisdom you realise that saying no can be the best thing you can ever do! And I use the word do, because we love to be busy doing stuff. When, in our relationship with God, it is no less important to do nothing in order to simply be with God. And that requires us saying no to something!
Within the context of a church family saying yes means we can give of our time. But, saying no, means we’re letting somebody else give of their time to God instead. If we’re not careful our ability to say yes can overwhelm other voices who may be less comfortable saying yes out loud.
All things have a beginning and an end. Which means that all things have a middle too! At some point we have to realise we can’t do everything because there is more to do than we can humanly do, and if we can’t do everything, and can only do some things, it is logical to conclude that we should be more than willing to say no in order to selectively do what God is asking of us. And it also means, interestingly, that we need to be encouraging people to say no, as much as we may currently urge them to say yes!
So give yourself a break, and be happy saying no to people, because God wants our hearts far more than our hands.
Just a thought…
Andy B
Support the show
Keep in Touch with the BerryBunch
www.berrybunch.org
Support Us Online
www.berrybunch.org/supportus
View all episodes
By Andy BSend us a text
One of the most powerful words in the English language has just two letters in it.
It begins with the letter “N” and ends with the letter “O”.
As Christians we can be under so much pressure to say yes to everything, and church leaders can be notorious for forgetting that the people who are giving of their time to serve in churches, how ever important that particular ministry may appear, also have lives to live and church is just one small piece of that.
Being part of a church family is really important. The bible goes to great lengths to remind us of the importance of exactly this! But our primary ministry is always to our family, especially if we are married or have children.
Clive Calver, who once led the Evangelical Alliance in the UK had to learn to say the word ‘No’. It reached a point where he realised he could have been in perhaps 3 or 4 meetings every night, or more, ever single day of the week. He didn’t like to say no. But, when he realised he had more meetings than evenings that he was needed at, saying no became something he was able to start saying. With maturity there is a certain degree of wisdom. With wisdom you realise that saying no can be the best thing you can ever do! And I use the word do, because we love to be busy doing stuff. When, in our relationship with God, it is no less important to do nothing in order to simply be with God. And that requires us saying no to something!
Within the context of a church family saying yes means we can give of our time. But, saying no, means we’re letting somebody else give of their time to God instead. If we’re not careful our ability to say yes can overwhelm other voices who may be less comfortable saying yes out loud.
All things have a beginning and an end. Which means that all things have a middle too! At some point we have to realise we can’t do everything because there is more to do than we can humanly do, and if we can’t do everything, and can only do some things, it is logical to conclude that we should be more than willing to say no in order to selectively do what God is asking of us. And it also means, interestingly, that we need to be encouraging people to say no, as much as we may currently urge them to say yes!
So give yourself a break, and be happy saying no to people, because God wants our hearts far more than our hands.
Just a thought…
Andy B
Support the show
Keep in Touch with the BerryBunch
www.berrybunch.org
Support Us Online
www.berrybunch.org/supportus