BIBLE BITES
WHILE WE WAIT, SAY NO! EVERYTIME
You may be good at many things but are you good at saying ‘no’ to the things to which God wants you to say ‘no’? It is a monosyllable word and really, it is not all that difficult to get your tongue around. Try saying ‘no’ and notice the shape of your mouth and where your tongue immediately has to go to pronounce the ‘n’. Now try saying ‘maybe’. Did you notice that your tongue barely had to move at all? Try the word ‘okay’. Notice that it is the middle of your tongue that hits the roof of your mouth – not the tip of your tongue required for the ‘no’ word. ‘No’ is a tongue-tip action.
All of that may have seemed rather juvenile and an insult to your maturity. But literally, from a spiritual perspective, ‘no’ needs to be on the tip of our tongues 24-7, as we carefully navigate and manoeuvre our way through the murky waters and rocky shoals of this brutally godless age.
Paul wrote to Titus on the Island of Crete and gave him quite a few instructions. It’s an interesting little letter. It certainly deals with lifestyle and behavioural issues! With unmistakeable clarity, Paul outlines how God expects Christians to act. It is very clear that God never intended our Christianity to be simply an invisible issue of the heart – with an external anything-goes attitude, as long as you love Jesus in your heart. God expects us to have to say ‘No!’ frequently as we wait (yes ‘wait’) for the Lord to come and take us to be with Himself.
Let’s be honest – it’s possible to forget that we are even ‘waiting’. The priorities of people who are not ‘waiting’ and, in fact, don’t even know about ‘waiting’ – insidiously creep deep into our mindsets and affect our behaviours. And that’s downright scary! When that happens, we end up saying ‘maybe’ too often; ‘okay’ too often and ‘yes’ too often.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training, instructing, teaching us to renounce (to firmly say NO in the strongest possible way) to what? to – ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ…”
God expects us to say ‘No!’ every time to any and all forms ungodliness and to any and all worldly desires, ambitions and passions. It would be a strange verse if the verse contained an exception clause such as: “teaching us to renounce ungodliness and worldly desires except for….” What exceptions and exemptions do you wish God had made? The first thing that comes to your head is probably the very thing you need to renounce and say ‘no’ to in the clearest of terms.
Praise God we are among those who are ‘waiting’. It could have been otherwise in our lives. We shall all be changed and when we see Him, we will be like Him morally. We will perfectly love all that He loves and completely hate all that He hates – and there will never be another inner struggle to hinder or torment us. While we wait, may we have the devotion to Christ and the purpose of heart to say “No” often.
Walk carefully and closely with the Lord today,
Warmly in Christ,