I carry a small blue card around in my Bible. On the front it simply says, “Yes, Lord!” On the back it reads May 2, 2010. I've had this in my Bible for the past five years to remind of me the day when I knelt at the altar and surrendered my will to the Lord. When I said “Yes” to whatever the Lord was calling me to, whenever He was calling me.
You are probably expecting me to tell you the next thing I did was quit my job, run home, pack my bags and move to the Middle East. Guess what?! That’s not what happened. Actually, there were not any drastic events following that commitment, but rather it was a heart-change. It was when I really began to believe God could use me and would use me, regardless of how equipped or prepared I felt. He was asking me to be willing to be His vessel.
I gave my life to Christ at a very young age. I believe when I prayed my prayer of repentance and invited Jesus into my heart, He washed my sins away and entered into my life. Growing up, I sought to serve Him and love His people. I grew in my relationship with God and had struggles along the way, as everyone does. But, I think I was still holding on to my dreams, my plans, and ultimately my will.
I wasn't giving God all of me, I was giving Him the parts I was comfortable with Him having. At times, I was allowing fear of the unknown, rejection and uncertainty to prevent me from being all God had created for me.
On that Sunday, five years ago, God called me to lay down those dreams, plans and my will. He asked me to be willing to say “Yes” to Him, whatever the cost, whether I felt prepared or not, regardless of the outcome. It was such a humbling time of obedience, but looking back, I can see how God has used that moment of surrender in so many ways in my life.
To walk in obedience with the Father is to trust His plans.
To “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5).
God has shown me that my desires need to come from Him.
Psalms 37:4 says to “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
That means I need to seek the will of my Father, to lay down my desires, and examine them to see if they are truly from the Lord. If God (not I) placed desires in my heart, He will fulfill them in His time.
As my precious friend Helen Outlaw so beautifully taught us at Worship and the Word last September (I was watching via FaceTime in India and it was just as powerful!), we need to walk in faithful obedience. We need to put on our work shoes and apply all of the knowledge we have gained. We need to go and plant seeds of the Gospel. We need to work for the Lord.
And beyond faithful obedience, we need to produce fruitful obedience. Saying “Yes” to the Lord does not just mean going and doing good works.
It means going and doing works that bear fruit for His Kingdom.
I can work and toil and strain to do good deeds all day long, but if they are not truly what God has called me to do, it’s not being obedient, I’m just wearing myself out.
I hope you will join us April 17-18 at Flourish, the First Irving Women’s Spring Retreat. We have invited some wonderful women of faith to come and teach us more about what it looks like to walk in fruitful obedience to the Lord. To be women who seek the face of the Lord and go out and do what He has called us to do. To take the head and heart knowledge God has given us and to apply it daily in our hearts, homes, workplaces, and community.
In my prayer time this week, the Lord reminded me that
He has equipped me for what He is calling me to do today, and He is preparing me for the work He has in store for me tomorrow.
God longs to walk alongside us, dear sisters, as we seek to do His will, glorify Him, and share the Gospel with a world that desperately needs to hear. Are you willing to answer that call? Are you ready to say “Yes, Lord!”?
Kalie Lowrie has been a member of First Irving since April 2012. She is active in the Forge young adult ABF, serves on the Women's leadership team and helps with the Connections team in the Welcome Center on Sunday mornings. Kalie works in Communications for Texas Baptists and in her free time she enjoys traveling, spending time with friends and family, playing games and watching Gilmore Girls.
“Flourish.” I love that word. We have adopted the name for our blog, our upcoming ladies retreat, and even considered naming our ladies ministry by one simple word, “flourish.” I believe this word is so appealing.
It indicates thriving growth with the presence of joy and delight.
“Flourish” always transports me to spring and hills covered in bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes. In Psalms 1 we are given a biblical picture of flourishing. The Psalmist writes:
“He [she] is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he [she] does prospers.”
I know we all would like to be described as this tree, but the truth is usually quite different for me. I often feel overwhelmed, consumed, tired, unresponsive, and unproductive. The list could continue. I won’t bore you with the description, but can you relate?
Dictionary.com defines flourish as “to grow luxuriantly or to thrive in growth.” Google adds “to grow or develop in a healthy or vigorous way.” Sounds more like the weeds right now in my front yard than it does my current situation. Interestingly, the Google definition adds “especially as the thought of a particularly congenial (welcoming or hospitable) environment.” This world tells us flourishing is only possible in the right circumstances. To grow or thrive, to develop in a vigorous way, is only possible when our circumstances are favorable or when certain conditions are present.
Ladies, I believe we often don’t flourish because we substitute the wisdom of this world for the truth of who we are in Christ.
We plant our roots in the soil of our circumstances instead of near the stream of “Living Water.”
We survey the environment of our circumstances and think “I can’t prosper here; it’s too painful. I just want out, or why is this happening to me?”
Consider this verse in Isaiah “I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground.” Thirsty and dry ground certainly does not describe optimal growing soil, yet Isaiah continues “they will spring up like grass in a meadow like poplar tress by flowing streams” (Isaiah 44:3-4). Isaiah describes thriving, beautiful growth even in the harshness of desert terrain.
I don’t know what your “desert” may be right now, but Jesus does. The Living Water waits to pour His life, His joy, His peace, His ability that we might flourish “as oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor” (Isaiah 61:3). Jesus’ teaches how to thrive in the face of extreme circumstances with the parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders.
Perhaps you are familiar with the illustration. Two men built the same house, but on different foundations. Each home then faced the same fierce storm. The wise man’s house withstood the storm. The fool’s was destroyed, and “it fell with a great crash.” The wise man’s foundation was the rock “of hearing these words of Mine and putting them in to practice” (Matthew 7:24). Simply put, the wise man built on the foundation of obedience.
I don’t mean a list of “to do’s” and not “to do’s.” I mean the same surrender of heart Jesus offers in the garden as He sweats blood and declares
“Yet, not my will but Your will be done” (Matthew 26:39).
I want to grow my roots in obedience to His will and not blown over because I have so hoped in my own way. Obedience is the rich soil that allows us to flourish no matter our circumstances.
Recently, I quietly watched a patient, young mom and her active daughter at a local playground. After several warnings she continued to disobey, earning a timeout. After several minutes of watching the other children play, she sweetly looked to her mom and said, “I am ready to obey now.” I loved her honesty but at the same time conviction washed over me.
Forgive me Jesus for the many times I have treated obedience as a choice instead of a lifetime pursuit.
How many times have I missed the opportunity to “flourish on the playground” because I chose to disobey?
For me, I am having a transplanting party. I am getting out of the pot of my circumstances and my own desires and replanting my roots deep in the Living Water. I want to flourish at all times, not just when circumstances are favorable. I want to thrive, not just survive. Ladies let’s be found chasing hard after Christ, flourishing for His glory, focusing on Him as the prize.
Alicia Frick
Alicia and her husband Ricky have been married for 20 fun, adventure-filled years. They are blessed with three children: Kenneth, 28, Lauren, 16, and Carson, 14. Alicia currently teaches the Free to Soar mixed-age Sunday School class and women's bible studies at First Irving. In her free time, she enjoys reading, traveling, watching movies, and playing games with her family.
