Will You Yield?

Read Romans 8:1-11

Have you ever been around a “control freak”? You know who I’m talking about. That person that has to have his/her hands in everything and nothing can be accomplished without it being their idea. The one that believes it is all in their power, intellect and good looks that they have arrived where they have landed. There was a lady named Sally (not her really name) that suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease. She was asked what lessons God was teaching her as she dealt with this difficult and debilitating disease. Her immediate response was, "Loss of control."
Sally had always been a highly organized, independent person whose corporate job involved long hours and frequent travel. Now she had to depend on others for everything from getting dressed to brushing her teeth. Unable to move her arms or legs, she had control over only what she thought and what she said. She knew that soon she would even lose her power of speech. "I used to stress over my job," she said, "and never really gave it to the Lord. Now, with almost all control gone, I can stress about my physical limitations or surrender it to Christ."
What would it take for God to teach some of us about losing control? Would it take what Sally dealt with, or are we more yielding to God than that? The question facing each of us is, "Will I retain control of my life or yield it to the Lord today?" To live only for what I want is to be controlled by the sinful nature. Paul said that this leads to death, "but to be spiritually minded is life and peace" (Romans 8:6). We need to be yielded to Him because He will not force His will upon you. He will use any means necessary to teach you and draw you to Him, but He will never force you to yield. There are people that just cannot let go of their life because they cannot or will not trust that He will take care of them. My question is, “Is it better to yield now or later?”
There will come a day in everyone’s life where they will yield their life. I pray today that you will yield yours today. Please do not wait until your life is taken from you to yield, but “crucify yourself” with Christ and just watch how wonderful your yielded life will become. To one degree or another, we will all lose control of our lives as we grow older. Yielding control to God is a choice we can make every day—starting today. True freedom comes not from choosing our way, but from yielding to God's way.

“Mine are the deep-seated fears established when we are children, and they never quite go away: the fear of being helpless, the fear of being trapped, the fear of being out of control.”
- Virginia C. Andrews