Yielding

By  Larry Doyle Crenshaw

MeditationsInLight.Blogspot.com

To yield sounds too passive an action

Betraying our sense of self and self-control

But yielding our hearts to God’s satisfaction

Makes sanctifying amendments to our soul

When I think of an unyielding, uncompromising, persevering soul, I think of Winston Churchill.  During May-June of 1940, Mr. Churchill, the recently appointed Prime Minister of England, gave three speeches.  Each one meant to fortify and bolster the British spirit in the face of what appeared to be an imminent invasion.  Noting that in these forthcoming battles he had nothing to offer but “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.”  In another speech he said “We shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on the beaches,…in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender...”  The third speech told Britons, “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”   His unyielding spirit contributed to Allied victories in World War II.

Churchill’s rhetoric echoed Alfred Lord Tennyson’s words a 100 years earlier in his poem Ulysses:

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

We observe that part of our heritage is this trait of unyielding, unbending, and firm resolve especially when fighting for freedom, family and our homeland.  There are, however, differing aspects of this unyielding trait that can be our downfall or our salvation.  First, and unfortunately, we do not always apply that noble trait to resisting sin and things less worthy.  Secondly, there are things – sacred and holy things to which we should yield – must yield.

The Apostle Paul stated it this way, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”  Romans 6:16.  Elsewhere, the scriptures proclaim, “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord….” Mosiah 3:19

Our meditative verse explores this willing surrender to the Divine – this capitulation of our “natural man” so that we might, in all ways, become like Christ.  Thus we see that,

A sanctified heart evolves from Godly yielding

Essential to those on the path to exaltation

Suited in God’s armor of light ever shielding

We arrive saved and perfected at our destination

Yielding

And in the fifty and first year of the reign of the judges there was peace also, save it were the pride which began to enter into the church—not into the church of God, but into the hearts of the people who professed to belong to the church of God—  And they were lifted up in pride, even to the persecution of many of their brethren. Now this was a great evil, which did cause the more humble part of the people to suffer great persecutions, and to wade through much affliction.   Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God.

Book of Mormon  Helaman 3:33-35

There is way to purify and sanctify our hearts

By humbly yielding unto God’s solicitation

Empowerment that fasting and prayer imparts

Thus building on faith’s sure foundation

Yet to yield sounds too passive an action

Betraying our sense of self and self-control

But yielding our hearts to God’s satisfaction

Makes sanctifying amendments to our soul

A sanctified heart evolves from Godly yielding

Essential to those on the path to exaltation

Suited in God’s armor of light ever shielding

We arrive saved and perfected at our destination

May we yield our hearts and minds and wills

To God’s work in the ever-present here and now

Hastening our strides and strengthening our skills

Yielding unto God all our sanctified hearts will allow

Larry Doyle Crenshaw