God Says "Yes!" to His Promises

Michael and I are leading our Sunday School class right now while my friend, Tracy, who usually leads the class, is preparing to have a baby in October. Yesterday, our study was about having a 'yes' home--saying yes to our children as much as we can. For example, saying, "Yes, I'll play with you" even though we're tired after a long day or "Yes, you can have friends over to spend the night", even though the house isn't spic and span. I will admit that this is a hard thing to do. Often, I find myself saying, 'no' all day long.

"No, don't touch that! No, I can't play with you right now! No, you can't have anymore ice cream. No, you can't take the dirty clothes out of the hamper! No, I can't pick you up right now!"

No, no, no, no, NO!

Of course, we can't say, "Yes, you can play in the middle of the road" or "Yes, you can stay out until 3 A.M." We can't always say, "Yes, you can have that new toy at Wal-Mart." We still have the responsibility of looking out for our children's best interests and keeping them safe.

I'm reminded of 2 Corinthians 1:20--"For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God." God made us tons of promises in the Bible:

1)Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.
2)He'll supply your needs
3)He'll never leave you nor forsake you
4)He gives rest to the rest to the weary.
5)His strength is perfect in your weakness.

So, if you say, "God, please provide for me. I don't know what I'm going to do," He'll provide.
If you say, "God, please hold my hand. I feel so alone right now," He'll be right there.
If you say, "God, please forgive my sins," He'll do it.
If you say, "God renew my strength. I don't know how I'm going to face another day," He'll lift you up.

Ask Him for any of those things and His answer is a resounding, 'YES!'

Now, here's where we sometimes get confused. All my life, I've heard people say, "If you want something, just pray for it, and God will give it to you." What they don't always explain is that God will give you things you ask for that are in His will--not just any and every request we make.  Just like a child, we sometimes think we should get a 'yes' answer to whatever we ask. We even throw toddler tantrums. Yep, I've done it before.

Read the verse again. God says 'yes' to His promises. He doesn't say 'yes' to every request we make. Sure, sometimes, he might make a way for you to get that brand new X-box you wanted, but if He doesn't--don't think he didn't hear you. Be assured, if you ask for anything that He has promised in His Word, you will receive it. And if it doesn't happen when you want it to happen, don't take that as a 'no'. It's most likely a 'not right now', and just like children, we have almost as hard of a time hearing 'wait' as we do 'no'.

Bottom line: Read the Word. God has promised you many, many more 'yeses' than 'no's'. And that's a promise.