🕊️ When Saying Yes Costs Everything

Yielding to God is like slipping into an oven mitt—He does the baking; we simply carry what He prepares.

📚 Devotional Credit: eManna
📸 Photo Credit: Unsplash

Mary's response to the angel Gabriel wasn't a moment of passive surrender—it was a bold, costly yielding of her whole life. We often read her story with familiarity, but step into her sandals and the weight becomes staggering. She was a young, betrothed woman, now tasked with explaining the unexplainable: that she was pregnant, and God was the Father. The moral implications, the social fallout, the strained relationship with Joseph—none of it stopped her. Why? Because she trusted the voice of the Lord more than the voices of fear, logic, or societal consequence.

Her declaration—"May it happen to me according to your word"—was not a lighthearted nod. It was a costly yes. Her obedience didn't guarantee applause. It likely brought whispers, rejection, even shame. Yet it also brought forth Christ. And that’s the call for every believer who desires to live the abiding life: to allow Christ to be formed in us and expressed through us, even when the surrender stings.

God never forces His way. He invites. And when we say yes, it often involves laying down our reputation, comfort, or expectations. But what we gain is far greater: the joy of participating in something eternal, as Christ is manifested through our lives.

Mary is not merely a historical figure—she’s a picture of what it means to carry Christ, not just spiritually but visibly. It takes trust. It takes surrender. And yes, it takes a cost. But the fruit of that surrender is the life of Christ in us, lived out for the world to see.

📓 Journal Entry – Voice of the Holy Spirit Through Scripture

Beloved, I am not looking for the most capable—I am looking for the most yielded. Just as Mary gave Me her yes, I ask you to trust Me when I lead you beyond comfort, reason, or predictability. I do not ask you to manufacture anything in your own strength. I simply ask you to believe that My Word is enough, and that I am able to bring forth My life through you.

You are already My dwelling place. My Spirit has made His home in you. When I nudge you toward surrender, I am not trying to take something from you—I am offering to express Christ through you in ways that transcend human measure. The cost may be real, but so is the joy.

You do not need to fear the whispers of man when My Word is your anchor. Trust Me in the awkward, the misunderstood, the hidden places. Christ in you is My plan. My grace is sufficient. My power is made perfect not through your performance, but through your availability.

Stand as Mary stood—willing, trusting, unshaken by what others may say. My Word will not fail. I will be faithful to complete what I begin in you.

Scripture References: Matthew 1:18; Luke 1:26–38; Galatians 4:19; Philippians 2:13; Colossians 1:27; Romans 6:13; Galatians 2:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:24

🧤 Real-Life Analogy

Saying yes to God is like slipping your hand into an oven mitt before pulling something from a blazing oven. The mitt doesn't bake the bread—it just yields itself to protect and carry what’s being brought forth. It doesn’t ask why or try to do the baking—it just fits itself to the hand that knows what it’s doing.

In your day today, that might mean surrendering your instinct to defend yourself in a conversation and trusting Christ to speak peace through you. Or it may be saying yes to a calling that seems too weighty, simply because you know the One who calls also indwells. The abiding life doesn’t ask, “Can I do this?” It quietly yields and says, “Lord, do this in and through me… I trust You to carry it out.”

🙏 Prayer of Confidence

Father, I thank You that I am already Yours and already full of Christ. I don’t need to strive to bring Him forth—I only need to say yes to Your leading and trust Your Spirit to do what I cannot. Like Mary, I want to live a life that quietly and boldly agrees with Your Word, no matter the cost. You are faithful, and Your life in me is more than enough. I rest in the sufficiency of Christ to carry out all You’ve called me to today.