“Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
Our lives are marked by yield signs – whether we are yielding right of way in traffic, to yielding right of way to ourselves, to yielding right of way to our Savior. Today I’d like to encourage you with a word about “Yield Sign Saints.” When we yield to Jesus Christ, we grow and mature in our faith; when we yield to ourselves, we stunt our growth. And know this: We are the ones responsible for which yield signs we follow and obey.
To yield is to give up (or surrender) our right of way to another, and how well we yield will determine the consequences that will follow, whether we are out in traffic or inside the truth of God’s Word. In essence, yielding to our Savior means we are surrendering to His will in our lives rather than following our own will. We know that God is all-knowing, and we also know that He has promised to work all things — even the bad and painful things — for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).We can and should rest in this truth and fully trust that His plan and purpose for our lives is far better than any we could ever conceive.
There is no better example of yielding to the will of God than the one we find exhibited throughout the earthly ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. He said plainly that “I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38), and that is exactly what He did. He lived a life fully surrendered life to God’s will, and God blessed everything He did.
You probably recognized that our verse for today comes from our Lord’s prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Having known from all eternity the horrific extent of the crucifixion experience that was now only hours away — so great was His anguish that Jesus was sweating drops of blood as He prayed — He still yielded completely to the will of His Father in heaven. His prayer is a wonderful example of how Jesus in His humanity was completely committed to living in alignment with the will of God, regardless of the cost or circumstance. And in yielding His will to the Father, Jesus provided the perfect prescription for how we are to think, pray, and live as yield-sign saints: “Not my will, but yours be done!”
May this be the confession of our lives in all things. Because we know that God is for us and working all things together for our ultimate eternal good, our prayers, no matter what we are currently facing, should echo that of Jesus in the garden. Is there any area in your life where you are saying, “No” to God right now? To be a yield-sign saint, we must be willing to say “Yes!” to Him, no matter what He sends our way, because “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Corinthians 3:17). True freedom in this life is only found through fully and cheerfully yielding to our Savior.
This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN!
Grace for the Race 