How To Get God To Say "Yes"

Introduction:

We spend a good part of our life hoping to hear a word that is made up of only three letters. We are most often on a quest to secure it and will go to almost any length to hear this word. And whether you realize it or not you begin this quest at a very early age. Some of you, as I speak, are hard at work trying to figure out what this word is. So if you haven’t already figured it out the word is YES!

Illustration:

I don’t know about you but as I was growing up I worked hard at trying to figure out ways to insure that Mom or Dad would say yes. I don’t know how it worked around your house but I always got what I call the classic response. Here’s how it went, I would ask my dad if I could go somewhere or if I could have something it didn’t matter what it was because more times than not his answer was (ask audience to respond) go ask your mother. So I did and her answer was almost always (ask audience to respond) go ask your Dad. Now that always presented itself as somewhat of a dilemma to me but I was resourceful so I went back to my dad and said, “ Mom said it was alright with her if it’s alright with you”. I waited with anticipation to hear the word and finally after what seemed like an eternity there it was, he finally said YES. Yes, yes, yes! That’s the words we all want to hear even if we have to suffer the consequences for not telling the truth.

Illustration:

I heard about a little boy named Leroy. His birthday was nearing and he really wanted a new bike so he went to his mother and ask her if he could have a new bicycle for his birthday. She looked at him, as only a mother can do and hoping to teach him a lesson she said, “Leroy, you haven’t been acting very good lately. Why don’t you go upstairs to your room and write a letter to God telling Him why you deserve to get a new bicycle”. So he went up to his room and began to write, God, this is Leroy. I’ve been a good boy this year and I deserve a new bicycle for my birthday. Please send one. Signed Leroy. But after putting a little thought into what he had just written he crumpled the paper up and began a second letter. God, this is Leroy again. I‘ve been a pretty good boy this year and probably should get a new bicycle for my birthday. Please send one. Signed Leroy. But after putting more thought into what he had just written, he crumpled the second letter up and he threw it into the wastebasket in despair. In a flash Leroy ran down the stairs and headed straight for the front door. His mother yelled out, “Leroy where are you going”? Leroy said, “I’m going to church mom”. Leroy’s mother was feeling pretty good about the situation. Maybe she had finally gotten through to him. With that she ran to the front door and yelled, “hurry back dinner will be ready soon”.

Leroy ran down to the corner church and headed right up the steps. As he went through the front door he looked around to see if anyone was there. But of course, because it wasn’t one of their regular meeting times, no one was there. Leroy looked around and spotted a statue of Mary sitting near the altar. He approached it very cautiously looked around to see if anyone was watching and then grabbed the statue of Mary stuck it under his shirt and ran out of the church and back to his house. When he came through the front door he headed straight up the stairs to his bedroom and set down at his desk to pen a third and final letter. God, Leroy here, I’ve got your momma, send the bike or else. Signed Leroy.

Illustration:

Isn’t it amazing how extreme we will get just to hear the word YES and we guys are the worlds worst. Every married man in this auditorium can identify with what I’m saying. Guys, we would have begged on bended knees just to hear the woman we were in love with say YES to our marriage proposal.

But how do you get God say yes? Do we treat Him like Leroy did and try to force Him into saying yes? Do we ever try to bribe God into seeing things our way? Now we would all agree that sometimes God just doesn’t say yes no matter how badly we want Him to because it’s for our own good. But more times than not God wants to say yes but the problem is we fail to ask for the right things.