Struggling with Saying “NO”

 

God tells us through the Apostle John in 3John 1:2(NKJV), “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” This is God’s desire for every person. He wants us to prosper in abundance and good health, and more importantly, He desires our souls to prosper. Heavenly Father is after our souls. In Romans 12:1, He lovingly implores us to present our entire beings before Him as a living sacrifice. We are to offer up ourselves to God, because it is the least we can do in response to all that He’s done for us. He has plans for our lives. We come to God just as we are, but we can’t remain that way. Transformation is His goal for our souls. When we surrender ourselves to Him, we begin the journey of soul work so that we can prosper and receive all that God has in store for us through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

You and I are created in God’s image. He is Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and we are three-part beings as well. We are spirit, soul, and body. 1Thessalonians 5:23(NIV) says, “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is God’s Will. Heavenly Father desires that we keep all three parts of our being holy and blameless before Him. Once we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, our human spirit is recreated and becomes alive to God, but our soul is a different story. Philippians 2:12 tells us we must work out our soul’s salvation.

This means that we have to put ourselves in check. The soul has two components, the heart and the mind. The heart is the feeling center and the mind is the thinking center. In Proverbs 4:23, God commands us to guard our hearts. This means we are to be careful that the wrong things don’t go into our hearts and the wrong things don’t come out of it. In Ephesians 4:23, He provides instruction on how we should discipline our thought-life. He commands us in this verse to renew our minds to His Word so that our thoughts line up with the mindset of Christ. There can be no doubt that God wants us to let the Lord Jesus Christ rule over our minds and hearts, but this is our choice. Our souls are totally under our jurisdiction.

Once we become born again, our spiritual journey in Christ begins, but we must not be fooled because spiritual warfare will heat up at times. God’s enemy is the devil, and the devil desires to steal from us, to kill us, and to destroy any chance we have to live a blessed existence. We must recognize that God has equipped us to stand strong. In Ephesians 6:11(NLT), He tells us, “Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.”

God’s Word teaches us how to stay spiritually strong and sharp so that we are not outsmarted by the plots and tricks of the enemy. Through the Holy Spirit that lives inside our recreated human spirit, God helps us to say ‘yes’ to the right things, and ‘no’ to the wrong things—the things that the devil tries to tempt us with. But many of us haven’t renewed our minds, and we can’t discern when something is bad for us. We jump in lock, stock, and barrel. Some of us have developed strongholds and attachments to relationships, people, situations, and things that keep us blinded from our true identity in Christ. Even when we become aware that those things are dragging us down, we still hang on and find it incredibly difficult to say ‘no’.

2Corinthians 1:20(NIV) tells us, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.” We must know that God is willing to fortify us with His strength, and our surrender affirms that we invite, desire, and appreciate the work that He will do in us through His Spirit. He will strengthen our inner man so we can resist temptations, but we must do our part. The world has programmed an “I can’t” in the minds of many people. To reverse it, our faith in God’s willingness and ability to help us is the key.

We must begin to say what God says about our deliverance and healing. 2Timothy 1:7(NLT) affirms, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” It is our responsibility to line up our thoughts, confessions, and believing with what God has given us. We must change our believing to “I CAN through Christ!”, because this is the truth. Philippians 4:13 says, that we can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens us. Spiritually, we are fully equipped through our Lord and Savior, but if our mind isn’t renewed and we are not guarding our hearts, we might believe what the devil says instead of the truth that God has spoken in His Word.

The world is seemingly more complex than ever. The problems and issues we deal with seem complicated, and our emotional struggles can look to be so entangled and entrenched that we can’t imagine there’s a solution. This is exactly what the enemy wants us to believe, so that we will not be strengthened in Christ, and so that ultimately, we will relinquish our power and authority to him. We must never do this. Jesus Christ has won the victory over satan for all eternity, and we are called to walk in that victory. Christ tells us in John 16:33(NLT), “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

God has not changed, and He will never change. He has all power and wants to help us, but our faith in Him is required. Many of us are struggling with addictions, phobias, toxic relationships, and other sinful patterns of behavior. We continue to indulge the things that keep us in bondage. Jesus Christ said in John 8:32 that the truth will set us free. It took time for us to become entangled. Therefore, we must be patient with ourselves and with God as He brings us to full release and deliverance. We must not work against Him but with Him. We must pray that God will do a work in us through His precious Holy Spirit, and we must partner with the work of the Spirit by changing our thoughts, attitudes, and confessions to line up with the faith of Jesus Christ. ■

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

New International Version (NIV), Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“Struggling with Saying “NO", written for Christian Encouragement and Inspiration© 2021. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.