THE LIFE YIELDED — WHAT? (2)

The measure of our yielding is the measure of our human life. It includes everything inside: spirit, mind, heart, will, affections. It includes everything outside: home, children, possessions, occupation. It includes everything allied with friendships, time, money, pleasures, and life plans.

It includes our past, present and future. No matter what the past has held of sin, sorrow or self, it is all handed over to Christ in a once-and-for-all committal. But some can surrender the past who find it difficult to yield the present to Christ’s control. There is the desire to reserve a bit of ground. Others can surrender the past and present because driven to it by disheartenment or desperation, but they are fearful to put the future wholly into His keeping. How do they know that God can be trusted to be faithful or that they desire to live under His absolute sway for all time?

When giving a message on the yielded life at a conference, I noticed the anxious, troubled face of a woman in the front seat. I said, “You are able to trust July to God but fearful to put September into His keeping.” Her face lit up with a smile, which was, in truth, an acknowledgment of being caught in the very act of worry. After the meeting she said, “That remark about committing September to the Lord hit me. I could be very happy here now, but I must have an operation in September, and I have only half enjoyed this beautiful place because I am worrying over September!”

Yielding includes our worst and our best. Some find it very difficult to believe that God can accept or want them because there is so much of “the worst” that persists in their lives. But “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” is an invitation extended to the sinning saint as truly as to the sinner. Grace abounds from the beginning clear through to the end of our lives. So, no matter how often we have repeated the same sin, if we come yielding ourselves unconditionally to Him, He waits to receive us, and the blood of Jesus Christ is equal to any demand made upon it for cleansing.

Others find no difficulty in bringing to God the dregs of sin in their unyielded lives but find it extremely hard to yield their best to Him. In fact, they see no necessity to do so. Here is someone with very excellent judgment. The superior quality of it is recognized by the possessor who almost believes in his infallibility on all matters. The result is a domineering, overbearing person with whom it is exceedingly difficult for others to work. This point was mentioned once before a group of Christian workers. Afterward a missionary said, “You talked about me this morning! I am that person with the good judgment, and I am sure I have made things difficult for my fellow missionaries. I see now that even my good judgment must be yielded to the Lord.”

Here is another who is very efficient, and she holds the same opinion of herself that a young businesswoman held who said, “Why do I need to ask the Lord how to do something when, if I use my own good sense, I know as well as He how to do it?” That is putting it very crudely, but is not our failure often due to a similar self-trust?

Perhaps here is one with a charming personality who is extremely popular and easily draws a crowd about her. She can see the need of some homely, unattractive person yielding herself to the Lord to be made inwardly beautiful. But why should she do so? Does she not attract people already? Oh! But to whom? To herself or to her Lord? Our best can hinder the revelation of Christ through us as truly as our worst.

In taking the measure of our surrender to the Lord Jesus, it should be a settled matter that there can be no reservations. We cannot set aside any part of our lives and earmark it “reserved.” If Christ is to be Lord, He must be Lord of all. We must let Christ begin at the center and go to the circumference of our lives, laying hold of all in His path and bringing it under His dominion.

It should also be understood that there can be no substitutes offered to the Lord. We cannot buy God off with money or bribe Him to accept our time, talents, or service in lieu of ourselves. Having once offered ourselves in a glad, willing yielding to the Lord, all that we have in the way of natural endowment, acquired skill, or bestowed wealth will accompany such surrender but can never be accepted by God as a substitute for it. God wants first of all “not yours” but “you.”

Let it be understood also that we cannot bring just the troublesome, unmanageable parts of our lives to God, asking Him for spiritual repairs while we withhold the will, the heart, the mind. How much we are like the man who took the hands of his clock to the jeweler and asked him to regulate them as they did not keep time. “Bring me the whole clock,” said the jeweler, “the cause of the inaccuracy is not in the hands.” “No!” said the owner, “you will take it all to pieces, and it will cost me a lot! It is the hands that go wrong!” The measure of our yielding is the measure of our life; the refusal to yield any part of it, however small or insignificant it may seem to us, is an act of rebellion and will make impossible the fullness of the Holy Spirit in our lives. These lines we would do well to repeat frequently:

“Have Thine own way, Lord, Have Thine own way; Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Make me and mould me After Thy will, While I am waiting Silent and still.”

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Lord Jesus, help us trust You with our past, present, and future!