God always makes his grace visible in Christ, who includes us as partners of his endless triumph. Through our yielded lives he spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of God everywhere we go. 2 Corinthians 2: 14 TPT
There is an old hymn, now in the public domain, that we used to sing in church when I was a child. When I ponder the word “yielded” the lyrics come floating back to me from the past…
Have Thine own way Lord
Have Thine own way
Thou art the potter I am the clay
Mold me and make me after Thy will
While I am waiting yielded and still…
It takes courage… to give up to His strength.
Why are we so afraid of our own weakness; to give up our own way of believing to another?
Why do we fight so hard for “our way”?
I wonder, is it still this flinty part of us that demands independence? The old, “I can do it myself…” when in reality, we can’t.
Just try living this life of following Jesus without the power of His indwelling Spirit. I dare you! Can you love at all times? Can you always practice patience? Can you be tenderhearted, kind, and peaceful, exercising full faith in all circumstances? I can’t!
How many brick walls must we run into before we will believe, that apart from Him? We can do nothing!
We find our life when we lose it, right?
And by that I mean, when we trust His Spirit in us, to be strong enough, good enough, loving enough, powerful enough… whatever.
ENOUGH of trying to do it without Him!
I found everything I needed, IN HIM!
When I trusted and yielded to Him? I found freedom!
Yes, you must trust before you yield, and I don’t know if the concept of surrender is a very popular one these days.
I suppose that is because trust is in very scarce supply.
My yielding to another, means I must trust, then I can surrender my will to theirs. I must believe in them, even if I don’t necessarily believe in what they are asking me to do.
Yielded to God’s purposes and plans
I am currently reading Brennan Manning’s The Furious Longing of God.
In one of the devotions he makes this startling observation:
There are no palliatives for raw faith. In living out our union with Jesus one day at a time, the most decisive issue is believing…
Believing is living as though John 15:4 is true.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.
Manning continues,
It is sad to say, but the familiar phrase “the unconditional love of God” has become cliche, a true but trite expression devoid of any real meaning. Words, like anything else used too often, soon depreciate in value, lose their edge, and cease to bite into our lives. When phrases, such as unconditional love, trip too easily off the tongue, the speaker’s ego may experience a temporary rush of exhilaration using an “in” salvation slogan, but his heart remains unchanged… Unconditional love as a concept has transported me to intellectual nirvana, motivated the reading of at lease fifty books on related themes, and deluded me into believing that I was there. Until along came a day when I was appalled to discover that nothing had changed. It was all a head trip. Lofty thoughts and impersonal concepts left my lousy self-image intact and my way of praying unchanged.
Until the love of God that knows no boundary, limit, or breaking point is internalized through personal decision; until the furious longing of God seizes the imagination; until the heart is conjoined to the mind through sheer grace, nothing happens. The idolatry of ideas has left me puffed up, narrow-minded, and intolerant of any idea that does not coincide with mine… The wild, unrestricted love of God is not simply an inspiring idea… it affects what breaks your heart, what amazes you, and what makes your heart happy.
The revolutionary think that God loves me as I am and not as I should be requires radical rethinking and profound emotional readjustment.
Small wonder that the late spiritual giant Basil Hume of London, England, claimed that Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.
The Furious Love of God
It has been my experience that there is absolutely nothing, grace will not ask of me.
God is indeed furious in His loving and longing after my destined purpose.
To that end, I have found that there are times when He will ask me to yield, even the good things in my life, if they do not serve His purposes for me.
(This has been a hard thing for me to learn to accept.)
It has taken large amounts of surrender, courage, and trust, I previously didn’t believe I had; to sing those words, “Have thine own way Lord,” when I believed, His way, would make me profoundly unhappy.
Obeying and yielding, at those times, tested everything in my heart about what I believed about the love of God, and about His goodness.
Do you really believe God furiously loves you?
In his book, The Divine Romance, Brian Simmons writes this:
The Lord has more confidence in you than you have in yourself. He has already extended the hand of holy union and now reaches to draw you into your purpose. No one wants to see you fulfill your calling on this earth more than He does. Release frustration. Stop striving to discover who you are by looking around you. Who you are and what you are meant to do comes from within. It’s already there. The only way to recognize it is to learn to be happy with being you. When you identify as God’s very own, your strengths will become evident. Desires and ideas will stir within you. You’re a perfect companion for Jesus. He longs to reach through you to share Himself with others. The way you are meant to touch the world is unique. As you step into this way of thinking, faith will launch you forward.
Father, I believe that you have called me for a divine purpose. I may not understand the details, but I know my destiny begins with you. Each day I will acquaint myself with your wisdom, love, and truth, knowing that as I release my life to you, you will lead me.
– Brian Simmons, Run With Me
Arise my love, my beautiful companion, and run with me to the higher place. For now is the time to arise and come away with me.
Song of Songs 2: 13 TPT
Women With Destiny 