Yield (01/08/2026)

Yesterday, I was privileged to lead a group at our parish faith formation program in evening prayer. I used the standby acronym P.R.A.Y., explaining that the “P” calls us to praise and thanksgiving, “R” calls us to repent of our sins, “A” calls us to ask the LORD for what we need, and the “Y” calls us to yield, to discern the will of the LORD, and yield.

I believe that most of us are familiar with the need to offer praise and thanksgiving, most of us will admit the need as sinners to repent, and most of us will acknowledge our need for the LORD’s help in our lives. But the “Yield” is not as automatic. My free will, my hubris, and my desire for self-sufficiency can all collaborate to make me “stiff-necked” as the LORD calls us in Exodus (32:9). I can claim to be person of faith and call upon the LORD to save me yet demonstrate my obstinance and stubbornness as the Father’s child as we hear the LORD explain to Ezekiel (2:4).

In the book of Proverbs, we read, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways, acknowledge him, and He will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6). The psalmist gave similar advice: “Commit your way to the LORD, trust in Him and He will do this.” Perhaps one of my favorite illustrations of the LORD’s calling us to yield to Him and His loving divine design is in Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11).

Yesterday, the LORD gave me a thump, and I realized that change in my world needed to begin with me. I realized the LORD’s Spirit was stirring within me, calling me to conversion. Then last night, as I taught others about prayer, the Spirit highlighted the essential element of change for me – “Yield.”  And this morning, as I write, the image of my Savior in the Garden praying to the Father that His death on the cross would not be necessary but yielding for love of the Father and love of us. “Yet, not as I will, but as you will,” my Savior prayed. He is trying to teach me the essential element of prayer, the essential element of life in the LORD, the essential element of loving the LORD.

As we continue on our journeys of faith, hope and love, let us lift our hearts and minds and voices often in praise and thanksgiving. Let us humbly and contritely confess our failures and repent. Let us lift our needs to the LORD and let the LORD be LORD. And then let us be willing to yield and find that in yielding to His will and love we find ourselves and our purpose.

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.