The Freedom of "No"

We live in a hyper-busy culture don’t we? I feel the busyness creep into my soul every morning when I wake up. The temptation is to think that I can somehow master the expectations of others and those I have for myself; however, it never seems to work. The end of the day has a similar routine. I usually feel the disappointment creep into my soul when I think about all of the things that I didn’t get done that I should have gotten around to doing. All of this busyness seems to squeeze out any real time to spend listening to God. It turns my prayer life and Bible ready from worship (God shaping me into his image) to idolatry (me shaping God into my image).

One way to stop the madness is to have a change of pace. I want to encourage you to consider saying, “No,” to your regular to do lists in order to say, “Yes,” to listening to God. The word “No” can actually be a freedom word. Instead of thinking that we can accomplish all things in order to prop up our ego, I encourage you to think about saying, “No,” to something so that you will have the time and space to hear God’s words again in your life.