Good morning…
One word sticks with me from this week’s blog posts: yield. It strikes me that yield has a double meaning.
The Free Dictionary tells us that to yield, on one hand, means to give up one’s place to one who is superior, to surrender or to submit, to defer to or to concede. Day after day, we are designed to yield ourselves to the grace of God.
On the other hand, to yield means to bring forth a harvest by cultivation, to receive a return for an investment, to be highly productive. Jesus says, “I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father. He cares for the branches connected to me by lifting and propping up the fruitless branches and pruning every fruitful branch to yield a greater harvest (John 15:1-2, TPT).
“The Greek phrase can also be translated ‘he takes up [to himself] every fruitless branch,'” says the footnote for verse two. “He doesn’t remove these branches, but he takes them to himself. As the wise and loving farmer, he lifts them up off the ground to enhance their growth.”
As we yield ourselves to the care of the wise and loving farmer, when we feel fruitless, we are lifted up, propped up with God to yield more growth. When we feel wildly fruitful, we are pruned back to God alone to yield a greater harvest.
As we yield, surrender, submit, defer to God’s grace, our Father takes over the yielding process. May it be said of us: “This is the one who hears the word and understands and grasps it; he indeed bears fruit and yields, some a hundred times [as much as was sown], some sixty [times as much], and some thirty” (Matthew 13:23, AMP).
It is quite simple. We must yield to God to yield abundantly.
…Sue…
