Yielding is laying down the idol of control and choosing to trust God. It’s trusting God over my own ideas about what would be best for me. Yielding is making time to listen.
I recently asked Instagram followers in a poll (it was very scientific!) what they thought of the term “yielding” in regard to their prayer life. The most common answers were “surrender” and “listening”. These were lovely responses, causing me to wish my first instinctive answer was equally as graceful.
My two-year-old granddaughter has found her words. They flow ceaselessly with a variety of expressions, cascading in often indistinguishable words, phrases or bits of songs that are bouncing around in her head. I smile as I watch her daddy lovingly bend down to listen to her. He hears her heart, not just her words. He knows her needs, even when she doesn’t. She responds to his voice and his promptings. And he responds to her with words and actions that demonstrate his great love to her.
Repentance in and of itself is an interesting thing. Did you know it is both a noun and a verb? By definition, the noun form refers to sincere regret or remorse, while in the verb form it means to turn from sin; to feel regret; to change one's mind; to feel sorrow for. From this short grammar lesson, I realize that repentance is both a state of mind for me to embrace and an activity for me to take part in.
I have a sweet friend who is the most polite “texter” I know. Whatever the subject of her text, she never fails to begin with “Hello, how are you doing, hope you are having a good day”. Most people I know, including myself, usually just blurt out the question or the comment they want the person on the other end of the text to see. We know that texting was designed to be short and to the point, but if we talked that way to people face to face, it would seem like a rude way to start a conversation. That started me thinking about my prayer conversations with God.
Covid has scattered the local church.
The initial need to socially distance and stay safely at home in our jammies to watch worship services online has had far-reaching implications, many of which have not been positive.
Not regularly gathering together for worship made it easy for members to disconnect from their church community, get used to not being part of corporate worship, passively listen online and even stop listening at all. Eventually this led to many people feeling out of the loop with what is happening within their own church, to stop attending entirely and to get spiritually lazy. Others responded by “trying out” different churches and leaving the church communities they once considered family. These things have weakened our churches as a whole.
Even if staying up until midnight isn’t your cup of tea, it seems that recently especially, ushering in a new year has been therapeutic for many. No, our lives don’t magically change when the calendars do, but there is something cathartic about a fresh start. Some people have wonderful things to look forward to in 2022 like growing their family, starting a new job, finishing school, etc., while others just wish to end 2021 because it was hard. Either way, if you’re looking to have a fresh start in 2022, Here are some ideas on how to usher in a new year.
“Immanuel, God with us,” is without question one of the most beautiful, life altering, hope inspiring phrases in the entire world of words. It was an Old Testament prophecy foretelling of Jesus (Isaiah 7:14), a fulfilled reality testified to in the New Testament (Matthew 1:20-23), and it has been our church's theme the entire month of December. It is also one of my favorite names of Jesus.
