“Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.” ~ 1 Corinthians 1:20 msg paraphrase
This verse of scripture, while I have plucked it out of the context of Paul’s opening remarks to this church, can still stand on its own as truth. It is still coherent with Paul’s overall theology that God is in Christ demonstrating a resounding and unequivocal YES to all people for all time. For Paul, Christ is the demonstration, the incarnation, the “word of God made flesh” to reveal the absolute, incontrovertible, and straightforward affection that God is, and has, for all and in all.
This action of God in Christ is significant for us today as we seek security and a sense of well-being in our lives. This touches us today as much as we can conceive of it and receive it. This is not only a historical event, or a nice lyric in a Christmas anthem about “goodwill toward men,” or even a once in a lifetime experience that makes a person call themselves a “believer” or a “christian.” A more helpful way to think about it, is that this is a recurring event that happens within us over and over again, for as many times as we will allow a fresh infilling of the Holy Spirit.
And this very experience, this YES of God in Christ, can be our daily, minute-by-minute reality. This is why I commend you to start here first, before prayer, before study, before work, before fixing that problem, before seeing the doctor, or the healer, remember to start from this place of YES. This is the best, most confident place to start any prayer, too, to realize firstly and deeply in your gut system that you are glued together in love, and that God is for you and in favor of you without condition (Romans 8). Pray your prayers from this place of yes and see how it shifts your confidence that you are being heard, and seen by God today.
Prayer: Gracious and yes-ful, God. I want to accept this is my position with you. I want to start everything in my life from a positive place of yes. I love the way that saying the word, “yes!” feels in my atmosphere. I love what you’ve already provided for me, and what you are now presently providing for me in new and recurring ways. I receive my yes from you today, and I add my yes to yours. Let it be done, and let it be so in my life today. Amen.