Monday, September 12, 2011

Say Yes 7 Day Challenge

Don't let that title scare you....this isn't the typical challenge you think of - it doesn't involve exercise!  Some of you know me well enough to know that the words "exercise" and "Amy" are not best friends!  Lest you think I've lost my marbles, let me explain this Say Yes 7 Day Challenge.

For the next seven days, I challenge you to exercise your minds, your thoughts, your spirit, your eyes.  I love to watch for God in the everyday comings and goings of my life, and when I live through those eyes, I sense Him so near.  He seems so present.  Real.  Involved.

Involved in MY life.
Alive.

He's still alive.  Did you hear me?  He's alive!  He's still moving and working. We just have to watch for Him. 

This past week I watched a webcast featuring Lysa TerKeurst and Ann Voskamp entitled "Yes to God".  When I heard about the webcast, I was excited to see it because I enjoyed reading Lysa's book What Happens When Women Say Yes to God last summer. I have also enjoyed Ann Voskamp's writings that she mixes with photography.  With her words and images, she ministers to others with her heart completely exposed.  Their program served as an alarm clock to my spirit to wake up and not forget to watch for God in the everyday and say "Yes" to Him.  Even if that yes is but a simple acknowledgement that, in fact, it IS Him that I see in the ordinary.

Ann said this, "May we have a thought life of Yes so that we might live an action life of Yes." When our thoughts are centered around seeing and acknowledging Him,  it's so much easier to have a Yes action life.  It's easier to act at the moments of God's urging when in our thought life we have been looking for opportunities to say, "Yes, that's Him." 

Please don't tune me out thinking you don't have time to walk around with your head in the clouds looking for cute God moments....It's about more than that..

Engage.

Please.

Don't believe the lie that you can't see Him.  Don't believe the lie that you are too busy. Where ever you are, He is there.  Psalms 139: 7-12

 I can never escape from your Spirit!
      I can never get away from your presence!
 If I go up to heaven, you are there;
      if I go down to the grave,you are there.
 If I ride the wings of the morning,
      if I dwell by the farthest oceans 
  even there your hand will guide me,
      and your strength will support me.
  I could ask the darkness to hide me
      and the light around me to become night—
    but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
   To you the night shines as bright as day.
      Darkness and light are the same to you.

Lysa TerKeurst said this, "If we wait until everything is in place or wait until all of the broken things in our life get fixed to say Yes to God, we will miss saying Yes to God.  Because the messes and the broken pieces will always be there, in the midst of now, say Yes to God."

So what's the challenge you're wondering?

For the next seven days, look for Him in the midst of the everyday.  Live expecting to experience Him and when you do, come back here and post a comment telling us about it.  It doesn't have to be long, it can be a simple blip.  If you have trouble sensing Him, ask Him for eyes to see.  Lysa shared that she starts every morning with this prayer before her feet hit the floor:

God, I want to see You.
God, I want to hear You.
God, I want to know You.
God, I want to follow hard after You.
And even before I know what I will face today, I say yes to You.
For the next seven days, I am expecting to experience Him, and I am expecting you to experience Him too. 
As I intentionally watch for Him over the next week, I may not write new posts, but you can trust that you will find me in the comments below - and I'll be looking to meet you there.

To get you started, here's my first Yes, that's you God moment:

As I type this post, it's Sunday night, I am sitting out on my deck.  I sat here reflecting upon God while wrapping up this post,  I looked up at the moon, looked for Him there, but that wasn't it.  KLove is playing on our stereo in the background and I'm not really paying attention, but suddenly my attention turns from the moon for a moment and I hear these words:

God says yes to His promises
Take Him at His word
Yeah you can believe it
God says yes
To a child-like faith
When we claim everything He died to give
God says yes
The song was entitled God Says Yes by John Waller, and God's boldness at that moment to be so obvious to me just made be belly laugh - out loud. I say Yes to Him and He says Yes to me....You see, I was reluctant to issue this challenge to you.  I was afraid you wouldn't participate, but I said Yes to His prompting and He's already answered me.  I hope I made Him belly laugh too! By the way, the crickets think I'm crazy now!


Royal Princess Daughter Of The King
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8 comments:

  1. Yes, God, it is You who comforts us through the love of a friend when we are broken....

    I told my girls to watch for a way they saw God yesterday. I really didn't think they would remember, but late last night, Brenna came to me just before she crawled into bed and said, "You wanna know how I saw God today?"

    Overjoyed at her observation of Him, I said, "Of course I do!"

    "I knew it was God when Jennifer comforted me when I was crying today at school. She told me everything's gonna be ok, Brenna."

    I agree with my daughter, Yes - God comforts us through friends, and how sweet that is.

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  2. Yes, God, I see You in vulnerability. Odd as that may seem, what could be more vulnerable than to trade Your Majesty to be swaddled as a helpless babe? Yes, I see You in moments of vulnerability.

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  3. Yes, God, it is You who touched the heart of one person and gave them the desire to bless my family.

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  4. Yes, God, I see You in the precious freckles sprinkled across my daughter's nose topped of with that glimmer in her eyes, yes, You made that.

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  5. Yes, God, it was You who stood without arguement as You were insulted and mocked. How did You do that?

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  6. This may be small but considering what we've been through financially over the last 2 years it was huge to me. Ayden's birthday is the first of october and he had a few small things he asked for and one was the new phineas and ferb movie. I had been buying a little bit at a time and this was to be my last purchase on the next payday. Well guess what? I checked my email this morning and there was a $6 coupon for the phineas and ferb movie. How cool is that even in the simplest, smallest, most insignificant things (it seems anyway) HE is ALWAYS there.

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  7. Its been a very rough few months. I havent listened to music much, exhaustion, itunes not cooperating, multitasking, whatever, today en route to a longer destination than usual, I plugged my phone into my car, and listened to music, Eric (no coincidence, I see God in that too) was quiet, reading his book in the back seat, and the song "Waiting Here for You" By Christy Nockels played. It was as if God Himself was singing the song. Showing me where I've been off, and how to come back.

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  8. and let me just add something that JUST happened...you know how you have to enter in a word to make sure your a real person to post? My word was "sustain"...thats just cool

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