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Yielding means we give way to our rights, we relinquish possession of something, and we concede to God’s will for our lives. To do this daily takes much practice and solid commitment to our heavenly Father by living through faith, and trusting God with firm unwavering conviction in all circumstances as we traverse the narrow path to the Kingdom. Are we there yet?
It may take years to get to this stage. It does not come naturally to us as we like to do what we want to do, as the famous song entitled “I did it my way” goes along these lines. You may remember Frank Sinatra or Elvis Presley singing this popular hit years ago. I do. I distinctly remember people thinking at the time that this was such a good idea and it felt right. Whatever could be wrong with “my way”...right? Probably just about everything! We tend to want to put ourselves first, before others instead of yielding to the needs of those around us. Human nature is inherently selfish, arrogant and prideful, but it needn’t be, if we choose to be led by God’s Holy Spirit instead.
The song “My Way” is all about a man reflecting upon his long life full of both good and not so good experiences. The resounding message is of pride in himself with no mention of looking to his Creator who gave him all his talents and abilities in the first place. Why do we do this? Humans love to think they are in control and are master of their own destiny. Those of us who have God’s Spirit know this is not true and are so pleased to know God is in complete control over all people and all things in this vast, great limitless universe of His making. God allows us to have free will; therefore we get to make choices which can be a blessing or a curse if we do not choose well as we read from our Bible in Deuteronomy 30:15-20.
Another meaning for the word “to yield” is “to defer to”. We defer to God knowing His will is perfect and our will is not. We may think we have made the right choice at the time but we tend to want to choose the easier way rather than the best way. Lately I find myself thinking that sometimes I would prefer not to have a choice to make and be told instead what to do. Thinking back to early childhood years many years ago this worked well for some things but not all. We were created and designed by God to make choices and that is what makes us uniquely who we are with our distinct personalities. It would be woefully boring and horrible to be a robot. Now that would be too predictable, as a robot would not be able to deviate from a predetermined outcome...it would be the same choice over and over again. Yawn!
Choices are what make life interesting. Who we choose to marry, the career path we choose to follow, the car we drive, the home we live in, the school we attend, the clothes we wear, the food we eat, the things we do — and we could go on and on. The fact remains that God allows us to choose all of our choices, but He gives us guidelines to follow such as the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) and wants us to line up our thoughts with His thoughts. Even though we are far from perfect we are to heed the words found in Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts”. The key is to strive to be like God by practicing daily to yield to His will. How else will we learn and gain Godly character unless we practice righteous choice?!
Yielding and Yearning — A Marvellous Partnership
While we practice daily yielding, it makes it so much easier if we have our sights on the big picture of God’s Kingdom. Yearning for this incredible time to come in the future should be the impetus to propel us forward with purpose, courageously going where few have dared to go, looking to our Lord and Master Christ Jesus, our dearly beloved older Brother, who also yearns for our arrival into His Kingdom with such joy and expectation.
If we fully immerse ourselves in the scriptures to discover and enjoy all the learning there is to glean from in regards to God’s Kingdom, we will have a picture of what it will be like when every person will have peace and safety (Micah 4:1-4). We yearn most earnestly for Christ Jesus to usher in the Kingdom where He will rule from Jerusalem, the Earth’s capital, which will be known as “The Throne of the Lord” (Jeremiah 3:17). We can read throughout the Bible what God’s Kingdom will be like. Revelation 21 is marvellously descriptive while several places in the book of Isaiah — Isaiah 2:2-4, Isaiah 11, Isaiah 35, and Isaiah 65 can further add to our knowledge in order to meditate upon what we can look forward to. Such a stark contrast from the world as we know it now. Amos 9:13-15 also has interesting information to read. We can refer to so many other places in our Bibles where God sprinkles liberally a good amount of scripture for us to search out in order to contemplate while meditating on His awesome plan for humanity. Perhaps your interest is piqued to do further study?
So let us yield and yearn faithfully always looking to Matthew 6:33 and Proverbs 3:5-6 knowing that God is true and faithful and will complete the good work He started in us (Philippians 1:6).