Say Yes When Life Says NoSýnishorn

As soon as the doctor told me I had cancer, my mind went straight to death. Period. In my mind the word cancer was synonymous with death. I needed to embrace the fact that my relationship with Jesus included the power to heal my body, or cancer would kill me.

I went to John’s gospel, remembering that in chapter 9 Jesus reveals His ability to overpower a debilitating physical affliction. I needed hope as I wore a catheter on my leg and took pain pills every four hours. What happened to me during that time changed my life. I read John 9 to see what Jesus could do for me, but heard God say something entirely different.

He began to show me what I needed to know and do in order to say yes to life even while the cancer was trying to make me believe life was saying no! I needed to hear a yes from God, but God wanted to first hear a yes from me. God wanted me to see what I needed to do to access His divine power. God wanted me to retain a yes mind-set even though cancer was telling me no.

Honestly, there was a part of me that gave up ever getting better. I hoped Jesus would do it, but deep down I did not expect Him to heal me. God used John 9 to teach me that as long as I am alive and breathing, there is always a yes in me. And as long as there is breath in your lungs and blood in your veins, God does not want you to stay stagnant. Each day God wakes us up is another opportunity to influence others and bring Him glory. 

God helps us do just that. Whenever something happens in our lives that feels, looks, or sounds like a no, God says find your yes and pursue it. The gospel according to John 9 has inspired me to think this way. Mr. Blind Man is my hero. He was born blind. Life said no to him from the day he took his first breath. But he had so many yes responses in him that he ended his day with a life-changing gift from Jesus: “he came home seeing” (John 9:6).

Ask God to shape your heart into a receiving place for all of the yeses He has in store for you.