By Tim Smith
This Easter season, I want to act more like Jesus… and to do so, I am giving myself permission to say “no.”
Jesus said no to the Pharisees’ asking for signs. Jesus said no to Satan offering worldly temptations. Jesus said no to His own family interrupting His mission. Jesus said no to his village when they tried to make him become King. Jesus said no to the crowd’s demanding spectacle. Jesus said no to those who told Him to avoid the cross.
That matters. Jesus’ “no” was never random. It was always aligned with the Father and His mission. When you look closely, everyone had an agenda for Jesus. Everyone had their version of who He should be or what He should do. And He refused all of it, even the good things. Even the reasonable things. Even the expectations of those close to Him. If it wasn’t from the Father… it was a no.
That’s where this gets uncomfortable. Most of the time we talk about saying yes to God: say yes to God’s call, say yes to God’s purpose and mission. But Jesus showed us that availability to God starts with limits. Our life needs limits. Too many of us lead overprogrammed, overcommitted and overscheduled lives. To many of us are living at a pace that deep down I don’t think God intended for us. Too many of us just try to fit Jesus into our lives, rather than first making space for Jesus in our lives.
Following Jesus more faithfully and obediently often starts with no. Jesus said no to people pleasing, no to self-promotion, no to comfort, no to busyness and no to performing for the crowd. That’s because your ‘no’ reveals your values. It shows your priorities. It discloses what you’re committed to and which kingdom you’re actually building, your own or Jesus’.
Jim Collins wrote in his book Good to Great, “Good is the enemy of best.” We are all drowning in good opportunities. But if we want the right ones, the best ones, the God ones then we’re going to have to start saying no. No to over-scheduling. No to rushing. No to exceeding our mental, physical and even spiritual capacity.
We can’t give God a wholehearted ‘Yes!’ with a life that’s already full of everything else. Margin is not laziness. It’s readiness. We can’t meet every need. We can’t do everything. And we can’t pour out and share what we haven’t received.
Maybe the question isn’t: “What is God calling me to say yes to?
“Maybe it’s: “What is one thing I’ve said yes to, that God is actually asking me to say no to?”
The road to the cross was paved with a thousand quiet ‘no’s’… and one yes surrendered to God. Give yourself permission to say no, like Jesus so that when God comes calling you can really say yes and give everything of yourself to it. To God be the glory!
