Living the ‘Best Yes’ Doesn’t Necessarily Require Saying ‘No’

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“God is not one who likes things to be disorderly and upset. He likes harmony….Be sure that everything is done properly in a good and orderly way,” 1 Corinthians 14:33,40. (The Living Bible)

If you have read the book, “The Best Yes,” I’m sure you were challenged, as so many women were challenged, to step back from your life, take inventory of your priorities and be encouraged to say, “Yes” to the people and passions that God Himself has placed in your life. In a nutshell, women across the board were inspired to say YES in their daily choices, their heart (emotions and passions), their behaviors (willful and deliberate actions) to living their life esteeming the God-designed priorities He commissioned them for. While at the same time, to slow down and savor the smell of the relational roses in their life. To bask in the beauty of their marriages. To find that contented honor in their family life. And to discover the holy honor in their biblical design as a woman of God.

Women also began saying, “No” to things that had been crowding their days, overloading their daytimer’s, and over-stressing the prized and treasured relationships in their life. “The Best Yes” helped women to say a simple two letter word – No – to things that simply were hindering them from living the “yes” God instituted, (without sounding too mechanical), but that He orchestrated for their life directly from His heart. They were able to notice where they compromised peace for panic. Where they had over “stuffed” their life agendas, like a 5 year old stuffs his drawers full of unfolded & unkept clothes. They saw with opened eyes why they seemed to live spiritually and emotionally lethargic – they simply were living over committed, over wrought, over whelmed, over stressed, and over tired lives.

But what’s on my heart today is something I have been thinking through, praying about, researching SOOO much about, and have been sensing very strongly can happen IF we impulsively begin to take an overly energetic eraser to our lives and start dusting off what “we” may initially assume just has “got to go.” I’d like to add to all the “overs” that I listed above this one reality to consider….and according to the Barna Group, it is an ever increasing reality among women. We can also add to our over list, our living “over disorganized!” This is huge! And this is reality. The majority of women today live the list of  “overs” that I shared with you, and it’s primarily due to living overly disorganized lives.

Living the best yes doesn’t necessarily require saying no. Living the best yes could simply require learning to live organized and orderly lives.

What I see as a growing trend is this – We look at things like our relationships, our finances, our work areas, our ministries and callings. We look at our homes, our closets, our kitchen and vehicles and all we see is clutter. Chaos. Confusion. And immediately jump to the conclusion — something has GOT to go! We feel the immediate need to purge! Purge our physical surroundings? Yes, but also purge our lives of “stuff” that we feel is just too demanding, too hard, too requiring of our energies, too complicated, too involving, too hard, too “un-rewarding” and we rather run to the emotional island of “Living Less Is My Best Yes.”

But is that necessarily always the case?

Is that necessarily what God wants for us?

Could it be that we simply need to become organized and more orderly with our life?

That was definitely the case in Christ’s life and in the lives of the apostles, and in the lives of the many extraordinary women of the Bible. When the going got tough, they didn’t abort. When the going got tough, the tough got even more disciplined, more reflective of God’s nature of peace, and became highly organized and orderly.

Robert Morgan writes: “God is not disorganized, and when Jesus ministered on earth, His work was methodical and orderly. When the Lord fed the five thousand with loaves of bread and fish, this is the only miracle reported by all four gospels, so by comparing the accounts we can observe some interesting details. Mark tells us Jesus had everyone sit down in organized groups of fifties and hundreds so the food could be distributed in a swift and suitable way. According to John’s Gospel, after the meal Jesus had the place cleaned up with all the leftovers going into baskets so that nothing would be wasted and no litter would remain. Everything was done with planning and precision. The Lord was meticulous in His methods. 

When the apostle Paul wrote to the people of the Church of Corinth, he said, “God is not a God of confusion….Therefore, all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” 1 Corinthians 13:33,40 When Paul wrote those words, he was talking about church services that had become free-for-all gatherings without method or any modus operandi. People were shouting, interrupting, coming, going, and acting disorderly. Such exhibitions didn’t reflect the personality of God. 

It seems to me this principle applies to everything we do. Think of the areas of your own life and apply: “God is not a God of confusion, therefore all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.” That’s a hallmark of being pleasantly productive. EVERYTHING God does displays remarkable organization patterns. The concept of organization is built into the very fabric of the universe – form the design of the spider’s web to the arrangement of the stellar systems. All creation reflects the genius of a mind of order and infinite intelligence. 

This applies to the home. The Bible provides an organizational structure that gives purpose, order, and arrangement. The Bible itself is the best organized book ever written. The more I study it, the more I’m awestruck by its symmetry, arrangement, professions of thought, unity of theme, and brilliance of composition. God is eternally productive, proficient, profitable, and powerful. Because HE is well ordered, His works show method and appropriate tidiness. 

Living the Best Yes may not necessarily mean saying “No”, it may simply require becoming increasing more organized with your time, your methods, your productivity, your approach to how you do things, a change to your daily routines, and a new approach with the people God orchestrates into your “mission fields” of home, community, church, and in the day to day routines of your life.

So, get ready…the next Video Series I will be sharing with you will (hopefully) inspire us all to get organized! We so often, and I believe WAY too often, pull out of things that God never intended for us to escape from because we simply aren’t “trained or disciplined” in the area of being organized and orderly.

What we tend to call as “OCD”, the Bible calls “Godly.”

I sure do hope the next few videos Rip and I share with you all will be a real source of encouragement for you as you say YES to the plans, the schedules, the commitments, the callings, the passions, the purposes and most importantly the WILL OF GOD! Because here’s what I really want to tell you through it all —- to be living IN God’s will for your life will demand not only knowing when to say No, but when to say Yes To faithfully live out those “Yes’s” will require you to live an organized and ordered life. Stop and think about it…..would God’s will for our life require any less that who He is? Would it require any less than what Christ’s life required?

So, let’s embrace these next several video lessons with all our heart because I’m fully convinced that it IS the will of God for us all to be more and more and more transformed into Christ-likeness. And Christ, our Lord, was most definitely a “Best Yes” man to His Father’s Will — the hard, heart-wrenching, difficult, wonderful, painful, joyful, intentional, deliberate, exhausting, persecuting, miracle working, persevering, organized and orderly Will of God!

 

*The featured image is the title to Robert Morgan’s chapter in his book, “Mastering Life Before It’s Too Late.”

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lisa rippy

2 Comments

  1. Sara on April 14, 2015 at 5:28 pm

    Can’t wait to see the videos! I think a lot of women, especially my age, don’t know “how” to approach things differently and that’s where the frustration lies.

  2. Lisa Rippy on April 14, 2015 at 6:48 pm

    I agree Sarah! So much of what we call discipleship, is really taking the time to coach in “how to” be the woman of God we all long to be, and not always in “how to” DO things a certain way. I have grown to love the word “coaching” because a coach doesn’t single out one person for the sake of their personal success, but he coaches individuals for the sake of the TEAM. I see the body of Christ as the greatest TEAM on this planet…..and what an exciting thing it is when that TEAM is fulfilling the will of God for their each individual lives!

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