Yield

Do not be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the LORD.

2 Chronicles 30:8

Every week on our country’s roads, cars plow into each other because drivers fail to yield the right-of-way at busy intersections. By nature, we don’t like to yield. The word itself means “to give up, to relinquish, to surrender, to give way to.” That goes against our nature, but it’s for our good on the road. Learning to yield can save our lives and those of others.

The spiritual journey Christians embark on is also lined with yield signs. The Bible tells us we’re to yield ourselves to the Lord. James 3:17 says that the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and willing to yield.

Hannah Whitall Smith said, “In order to mold you into entire conformity to His will, He must have you pliable in His hands, and this pliability is more quickly reached by yielding in the little things than even by the greater. Your one great desire is to follow Him fully. Can you not say then a continual ‘yes’ to all His sweet commands, whether small or great?”

Yes, we can yield at all God’s intersections.

You become stronger only when you become weaker. When you surrender your will to God, you discover the resources to do what God requires.

ERWIN W. LUTZER