THE LIFE YIELDED — HOW? (1)

Perhaps some reader has been brought to say, Lord, I will yield to Thee. I see why I should yield, and what but now tell me how. Because salvation from beginning to end is through God’s pure grace, He always takes the initiative in bringing us into a fuller experience of our inheritance in Christ. So, the Lord Jesus stands outside every unyielded part of your life and knocks and waits for your response. He wishes to come in and fellowship with you in every part of your spiritual life, but in between the knocking and the entering something must take place, for Christ never forces entrance. If He enters, the door must be opened.

Revelation 3:20

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

Yielding to Christ is a definite act. It is not a mere expression of a pious desire, but it is the declaration of a purposeful determination. It is not an often-repeated wish, but it is a decisive act of the will. To yield is to acknowledge Christ’s claim to the perfect possession, complete control, and unhindered use of one’s whole being and then to act upon such an acknowledgment by a definite surrender of it to Him. Desire becomes decision and decision crystallizes into action.

In A Memorial of a True Life by Dr. R. E. Speer is recorded such a definite act of surrender by Hugh Beaver, a young man of rare spirituality whose life was very marvelously used among college students in a few brief years of service before God called him Home.

“Kutztown, Pa., Nov. 16, 1895.

“‘Just as I am, — Thy love unknown    Has broken every barrier down; Now to be Thine, yea, Thine alone    O Lamb of God, I come, I come.’

This 16th day of November 1895, I, Hugh Beaver, do of my own free will give myself, all that I am and have, entirely, unreservedly, unqualifiedly to Him, whom having not seen I love, on whom, though now I see Him not, I believe. Bought with a price, I give myself to Him who at the cost of His own blood purchased me. Now committing myself to Him who is able to guard me from stumbling and to set me before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy, I trust myself to Him for all things, to be used as He shall see fit where He shall see fit. Sealed by the Holy Spirit, filled with the peace of God that passeth understanding, to Him be all glory, world without end. Amen. HUGH BEAVER.”

Phil. 4:19.

Have you by such a definite decisive act of the will yielded yourself, all that you are, and all that you have, to the Lord Jesus? If not, will you not close this book for a moment and do it now?

Yielding to Christ is a voluntary act. We do not yield because we have to but because we want to. It is not a matter of coercion but of consecration. The Lord Jesus stands outside the door of that unyielded portion of your life and knocks, but He will not force an entrance. It would mean very little indeed to be allowed to enter if He did not find fellowship and comradeship with the one within. It is love that desires to enter, but unless love is met by love the entrance would bring heartache rather than joy. “What fragrance is to the rose, colour to the sunset sky, spotlessness to the falling snow, voluntariness is to the surrender of the life.” Of His own free will, He joyously, gladly laid down His life for us. With a smile and a song, He wants us to open the door to Him.

Yielding to Christ is a final act. Such a yielding of the life as we have been considering is irreversible; it need not be repeated. If it has been done honestly, it is for time and eternity. Great perplexity of heart has come to countless souls over this matter of repeated surrender, so let us be clear as to what has been done, and then we shall see how irrevocable the act has been.

Source: Life on the Highest Plane, by Ruth Paxson

Lord, thank You. You have not left us in the dark about how to yield our lives to You. You have told us that You are standing at the door, knocking. If I hear Your voice and open the door, You will come in. This is Your promise to us.

You never force Your way in. You leave the decision up to each of us to make our own choice.