For the past few months my life has been a series of "Yes, Lord"s. What I mean by that is that I have heard Him and felt Him wanting something of me multiple times and I have simply replied "Yes, Lord."
Now to get things straight, I have definitely turned from Him in this time period and "Yes, Lord" wasn't always my reply the second I heard something Him telling me to do something, but for the majority of this time period I've been able to follow Him. Not because of my own works, but because He answered my prayers and made changes within me.
Anyways, before I learned to say "Yes, Lord" my response to His commands was usually "I love you Lord, but I'm scared the world will judge me if I do that" or "I love you Lord, but I don't really wanna give up time to do that" (the list goes on and on). Essentially what I was saying was "Lord, I know what's best for me and you don't. Your plan for me isn't perfect and I don't need you to have a good life." (harsh but true). What I've learned is that when I set all of my doubts, fears, insecurities, and own selfish desires aside and know that God is bigger than all of that, He truly does bless me and knows what's best.
I could give numerous little stories of times I've said "Yes, Lord" (as well as times I've said no), but I'll just keep it at three...
I've always been very shy and uncomfortable around people I don't know well and I've always been really insecure about it. I hate to be places without one of my best friends and I really hate talking in front of people I barely know. I hadn't really been involved in a youth group since like 8th grade (I'm a junior) and never really wanted to be because I was too shy. About 3 months ago, a friend from school invited me to go to a youth thing at my church and even though I was really nervous, I felt like the Lord really wanted me to go. I said yes and I'm not gonna lie I was a little bit awkward at first but once we split up into boys and girls and started talking about our walks with God, I felt like it was exactly where I was supposed to be. I shared as well as listened to some of the other girls talk and now three months later, I'm very involved in the youth group and have made some amazing friendships that I wouldn't have had I ignored God's voice telling me to go.
My baptism is also another "Yes, Lord" story. After officially committing my life to Christ in October, I saw several signs that baptism was the next step for me. In a matter of two weeks, everywhere I turned seemed to be the word "baptism": I heard some sermons on it, I read stories about it in devotionals, I found scripture on it, and I just couldn't get it out of my mind. It took some time for me to realize that this was obviously God's next step for me. "If I go in front of people and get baptized, are people going to judge me for just now committing my life to Christ? Are they going to think I was a bad person before? Is it even necessary since I did it when I was little?" I let these thoughts take over my head until I finally realized that professing my new-found faith to the public by getting baptized is exactly what God wanted of me and is exactly what was best for me. I got baptized on December 16, 2012 and can easily say it was the best day of my life.
Last but definitely not least is the story of my blog! For about two years I've been reading other Christian blogs and love them and consider the people who write them some of my biggest role models (even though I don't know some of them). Once I committed my life to Christ and began learning so much about Him and about what it's like to live surrendered to Him, I felt like He wanted me to start a blog! Although I didn't think I'd be able to think of something to share about each week and didn't think anyone would actually take the time to read it, I went ahead and made it. I was embarassed and scared that nobody would like it at first and didn't tell anybody but my best friends but they encouraged me to share it on social media! Once I did, I got so much encouragement and multiple people told me my blog inspired them. Yes, I did get negative comments but honestly one person telling me that my blog pushed them closer to God would outweigh a million negative comments. The thing is that God is the one speaking through me onto here and knows that a lot of people need to hear what I write about each post. I'm so thankful God gave me the gift of blogging because I definitely don't have the ability to verbally share my stories.
This blog is not my doing and neither are any of the other great things that have happened since I've committed my life to Christ. His path has many treasures and blessings along the way that far outweigh any trials. When you surrender every part of yourself to Christ and are obedient, He will bless you with the time, money, strength, courage or whatever else you need to follow His plan. It might be scary and it will probably be difficult, but absolutely nothing is better than saying "Yes, Lord" when He is calling you because He is the infinitely wiser than us and His plans are infinitely greater than our own.
"I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you." Psalm 32:8
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