Throughout history, humanity has had a habit of saying “no” to God—no, we don’t need You; no, we don’t believe Your Word; no, we won’t follow; no, we don’t want Your help; and no, we won’t help You.
Each generation, and each of us individually, has echoed these same refusals in one form or another. We convince ourselves that life is fine without Him, that we know what’s best for us. We like to feel in control. We choose our paths, and we assume we’ll end up where we want to be. When we reject belief in God, we minimize the weight of our sin. We reason that any God who would judge us can’t be good—so why trust Him? What do we gain from surrender?
When we say we don’t want to follow Him, what we’re really saying is: “God, Your way is too narrow. It doesn’t look fun. It feels restrictive.” We’ve done things our own way for years, and we prefer it that way. And when we resist helping in His work, we justify it by saying, “That’s not our job. Let the professionals—pastors, missionaries, ministries—handle it. We’re not qualified, and we don’t have time anyway.”
But God, in His mercy, begins to unravel every one of our ‘no’s.’ He patiently shows us that each refusal is rooted in pride, fear, and a lack of trust in His goodness.
God may choose to work through a pause, a revelation, or a trial. In His goodness, as the Creator of all things, He knows that those who live as NO-men—not only miss out on eternity with Him—but also forfeit the richest blessings He longs to give us here and now. So, in His mercy, He places us in circumstances that shake our confidence in self and open our eyes to the invitation of becoming YES-men.
Yes—we need our sins washed away.
Yes—we want to spend eternity in Heaven.
Yes—we long for our families and friends to know the same hope.
Yes—we need God’s hand on our health, business, career, and relationships.
And yes—we want to store up treasures in Heaven, not just collect dust here on Earth.
Like so many, we were once NO-people to Jesus. Comfortable in our flaws and blind to our need, we told ourselves, “I’ll get better. I’ll fix it on my own.” But in His goodness, God knew what we did not: true correction and lasting cleansing come only from Him. Only God—through Jesus—can make a crooked road straight.
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain.(Isaiah 40:4)
So, how do we know if we are NO-men? Here are two simple but powerful questions to ask ourselves:
First, have our sins truly been forgiven?
Second, have we turned from our own ways to follow Him?
If the answer to either question is “no,” then we’re still living as NO-men. But the good news is this: we never lose anything by moving from NO to YES. In fact, we gain everything.
Saying YES to God means saying YES to the forgiveness of sin and YES to a new life following Him. Jesus is the gift of God, freely given, so that we can be washed clean. As NO-men, all we must do is confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts. That’s it. It starts with a single, humble “yes.”
For me, the first “yes” was admitting I needed to be washed—completely—of all my past sins. That was the turning point. From there, I began the deeper journey of saying YES daily—yes to trusting Him, yes to obeying, yes to walking the road He laid out, even when it was unfamiliar.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.(Romans 10:9)
None of us lose anything by leaving behind our NO-man ways—in fact, we gain everything when we surrender. Saying “yes” to God changes our eternal destination from Hell to Heaven. We gain a relationship with a good and loving Father, His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, who walks with us, guides us, and blesses us throughout our lives. Our path gets corrected—both where we’re going and how we get there.
I just wish I had said “YES” earlier!
Have a great weekend,
Stephen L. Thomas
