No! Why is such a simple word, very hard to say
Even when each miss makes me dearly pay
Why go ahead with choices that breed regret
When all I could’ve done is turn my back on guilt?
Looking in the mirror, I worry about being sorry
Every deed has a tag that can’t be paid by sorrow
Everyone, in spite of ranks, has the currency – choice
Why sell me short in a hurry and waste a pricey chance?
When I say no to what I want, I am free for what I need
When I say no to error, I’m reinforced for noble deed
When I say no to the good, I reserve myself for the best
Every time I fail and fall, it’s back to pit for another test.
The escape route from profligate pasts, nauseous now
And pathetic prospects, is to take a stand and not bow
Use the valve to leak off pressures that life pumps
And piles: by saying no, I escape untenable bumps.
God used Id to remind me that it is not wrong to say no. It is rather a hard word to say when all we can do is nod our heads in assent and join the crowd on the highway. No is a tough one to offer the myriad forces that suck from every side. In our efforts to be good, we interfere with God’s work and lose sight of the journey ahead. By trying to help, we get in His way and expose ourselves to harm. I have been there countless times that at last, the lesson sank and I entered the new year saying no to many things I have once said yes to.
There are many things I would like to do but can’t and yet I try so as not to offend. At the end of the day, it all comes right back at me. I lose the face I was trying to save, I lose those I was trying to please, and worse still, I lose the peace of His Presence. From there, it is back to the start, scratching my way up all over again, simply because I could not say no and leave it there.
It is often not a sweet decision for it costs us some very dear things. Yet, it saves us all the troubles of trying to extricate ourselves from avoidable traps that Abba allows us to fall into so we can learn and grow. More than ever before, it is time to say no to anything that God has not ordained for us; no to the things that we want to do which we ought not to, and no to the good things of life so that we can spare ourselves for the very best of God.
Glory!