Is "Yes" a Bad Word?

In a marriage proposal, the man asks the woman, "Will you marry me?" 

A "yes" answer makes everyone, especially the proposer, jubilant. This is actually recorded on camera, and often, the shots are not candid. But a celebration follows and planning for the wedding begins. The news is flashed on socmed, along with a photo of the engagement ring, and immediately the announcement is flooded with congratulatory messages.  

But according to Butch, a recovered drug user, "My life in hell began with a 'yes.' My addiction started on that day I could not refuse a friend’s invitation. 

"He was very persuasive, 'Butch, you have to come to my party!'  

“I knew I was courting trouble because his parties were famous for being wild. Yet I said, 'yes'.  I was sure I could easily handle the situation."   

Butch could not.  

When a joint was offered him, he said "yes" again and took a puff, then another "yes" and another "yes" plus many more. Not long after the party, he was hooked and moved to stronger illegal substances which cursed him for 10 years.  

He credits his miraculous recovery to divine intervention. "Drug users could never do it on their own,"  he said. In the rehab center where Butch is a volunteer counselor today, one of his pieces of advice is, “Before you are persuaded or coerced into saying 'yes' to a puff or a sip or a pill, run away as fast as you can."

Two of our Bible heroes refused to say "yes" and because of their faith in God, they had the strength to stand their ground, despite their youth. 

One was Daniel. He “was determined not to defile himself by eating the food and wine given to them by the king. He asked the chief of staff for permission not to eat these unacceptable foods.”(Daniel 1:8 NLT) 

He did not accept the gifts that Belshazzar promised him if he would interpret the handwriting on the wall and he defied the order for him to stop praying to God.  As a result, he faced the lions’ den (chapters 5-6). 

 

The other young man was Joseph. He became a slave to Potiphar, a top official of the  King of Egypt. Potiphar’s wife was attracted to him and begged him to go to bed with her. He knew the danger of "yes," so he repelled and resisted her advances.    

She persistently begged him, but day after day, Joseph was obstinate. One day, she simply grabbed him, and Joseph quickly pulled away (Genesis 39:1-20). This led to the circumstances that finally made Joseph a powerful man in Egypt.  

God’s grace works in unexpected ways, with twists and turns that lead us back to Him—if we believe and don't say "yes" to attractive lures like earhtly rewards. 

Yes, "yes" can be a bad word. We need to be careful before we utter it.