In poker, we say, “I fold.” We give up our cards and yield the current pot.
In some games, we concede. In team strategy games, we might vote to surrender. In others, we simply say, “I yield.” Some people beg for mercy. In a fight, the words may finally come: “I quit.”
But what do we say when it is time to bring our issues, our concerns, our ambitions, and our very lives to God?
We say, “I yield.”
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit.—Jeremiah 17:7–8
The person whose hope is in the Lord yields fruit—and does not stop yielding fruit.
There is a connection between the two meanings of the word. When we yield ourselves to God, our lives begin to yield the fruit of God’s grace.
In earnest prayer, submission to God prepares the heart to become a fruitful field in which God can work. This is not passive resignation. It is active trust. We release our insistence on controlling every outcome and place ourselves in the hands of the One who sees what we cannot see.
This is a root-deep experience of grace: yielding to God so that our lives may yield fruit.
It is surrender and victory.
It is submission and freedom.
It is bowing low and being lifted up.
It is letting our roots grow toward the stream so that, even when the heat comes and the year is dry, our lives remain green and fruitful.
As You Pray
Express your willingness to become a fruitful life through whom God can work. Allow God to fill you so completely with the Spirit that your life overflows with grace.
Our God and Father,
I come yielding my life to You:
My selfish will,
My bitter grudges,
My vain hopes of personal glory,
My misguided ways,
My life,
My all.
Empty me of everything that keeps me from You.
Fill my life with something new—
All from You,
All of You.
Plant me beside the living water.
Send my roots deep into Your grace.
Make my life fruitful for Your purposes.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
“The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to his foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”—“How Firm a Foundation” “From ‘How Firm a Foundation,’ first published in John Rippon’s 1787 collection.” Hymnary and Hymnology Archive
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