small yes's

Psalm 108: 1 My heart is confident in You, O God;
no wonder I can sing Your praises with all my heart!
2 Wake up, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn with my song.
3 I will thank You, LORD, among all the people.
I will sing Your praises among the nations.
4 For Your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
May Your glory shine over all the earth.
12 Oh, please help us against our enemies,
for all human help is useless.
13 With God's help we will do mighty things,
for He will trample down our foes.

The longer I live, the more I realize that everything about me & my life is because of God's favor. I have the influence I have, I'm able to love people as I do, people allow me to love them as I do,& everything that unfolds in my life is do directly & completely to the basic fact that God chooses to favor me.

It's not because I'm particularly holy, righteoues, or esepcially wonderful. (I know this will come as a deep shock to many of you! LOL)

Why does He favor me? I don't know.

Yesterday I had lunch with someone who I think simply gave me a blank check in regards to his being part of whatever downtown ends up looking like. His willingness to serve just kinda surprised me, not because he's some sort of self-centered jerk, but because his life is pretty full with a lot of other things.

Why would he make himself so available to the downtown presence? The only thing I can come up with is that it has to simply be God's unmerited favor.

I said all that to say this - this favor isn't just for me - I'm not that special! Anyone can find themselves receiving it.

How? I'm not completely sure, but I think it has something to do with getting up every morning & spending time listening to Him, as well as continuing to say small "yes's" to Him.

So many of the outstanding people I know or work with have gotten where they are not by some huge, dramatic, stupendous act of commitment. They are who they are & are where they are because, along & along, they've said yes to God is seemingly small things, which led to being asked to say yes to some more small things, which led to being asked to say yes to some more small things, etc., etc, etc.

And one day, they woke up & realized they were smack dab in the middle of all kinds of God's favor, being a conduit of Him, His love, & His Holy Spirit's power.

I think it works that way for all of us - small yes's connect us to God's favor because He knows He can trust us to do what He tells us to.

Think about that today

I love you