Print-Friendly Version(PDF - requires Acrobat Reader)
| Roy King, Director of Alumni Ministries; Professor of Leadership, Columbia International University | Print-Friendly Version (PDF - requires Acrobat Reader) |
For years I have taught others how to experience the normal Christian life of receiving the Spirit’s power, love and grace by using a simple illustration I learned from Robertson McQuilkin. Here’s how it works: Hold up both hands. Count off the fingers on one hand Y.I.E.L.D. and then the fingers on the other hand; T.R.U.S.T. Yielding and trusting describes the heart responding to God and inviting the empowering of the Spirit.
Recently God deepened my understanding of the relationship between those two responses of the heart.
My daughter is engaged to be married. The man she is committing to is gentle, caring, and hardworking. He loves my daughter and Christ. A few months ago he came and asked for permission to marry her and I gladly gave it. I “yielded” my daughter up to him. They are now actively planning their wedding for next spring.
One afternoon David called me at my office and told me he was on our side of town and asked me if it was OK to hang out at our house. No one was at our home but it would save him time and gas money to go to our home for a few hours before reporting to his second shift work. My immediate answer was, “Sure, of course.”
After I hung up I had the realization of how easy it was to let this “outsider” into my home. There had not been even a passing thought of turning down his request. But why was it so easy? Why no hesitation? I am not naïve. I know everyone is a sinner, and none of us is above following temptation into betrayal, lying or stealing. I have sinned and been unworthy of trust and I have been sinned against — seeing trust erode in relationships with others. So, why did giving access to many of my earthly possessions to this young man come so easy?
You probably already know the answer, but let me spell it out the way it rang in my heart:
Once I had given my daughter — my first born, my princess, my beautiful treasure from God — to this man, he suddenly also had the key to everything else I value. Once you give the best, the greatest, the deepest, the greatest treasure, then all of the lesser treasures are easily surrendered.
Suddenly the passage in Matthew 6 about the connection of your heart to what you treasure, and the parables of the kingdom — selling everything to buy the field or the pearl, or the invitation to the rich young ruler to surrender all of his wealth, or Paul’s word in Romans “if God gave you his own son, what makes you think He would withhold anything else” took on a deeper reality. Once we yield and surrender our greatest treasure to God, he then has free access to everything else that we value.
Yielding is the foundation on which trusting grows. Can there really be trust without surrender? Suppose I had never met David. He did not know my daughter, or anyone else that I knew. Our worlds had never intersected. We were complete strangers to each other. Suddenly my cell phone rings and this person whose face I have never even seen asks where my hidden door key is kept so he could “hang out” in my home for several hours — alone. I can assure you I would NOT surrender. Instead my next call would be to the police to give them his phone number and hope they could prevent the invasion; the break in. “Boy”, you say, “you sure not very trusting!” And I would say, “That is true. I will not just open up all of the treasures in my home to the unknown, uninvited guest.”
Where do you stand with God? Do you give him access to your money, your schedule, or your “free time?” Do you trust God? Trust comes easy with someone we are getting to know, someone that we love. Once God receives our greatest treasure then he should have free access to everything we are and have. If we have trouble giving him small things, like money, could that be an indicator he does not have our greatest treasure?
The exciting truth about surrender is that when I give God my greatest treasure I don’t really lose it. I still have my daughter’s love. I get to enjoy seeing her happiness and growth and joy that a marriage gives. I also enjoy an enriching relationship with this “new son.” Because of an act of surrender my life is richer in so many ways. I had more after the surrender than before I yielded.
I know it has been abused, but the often-quoted church proverb, “You can’t out give God” is very true when it comes to yielding and trusting.