Yielding

Jesus went out from there and *came into His hometown; and His disciples *followed Him. ² When the Sabbath came, He began to teach in the synagogue; and the many listeners were astonished, saying, “Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?” And they took offense at Him. ⁴ Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” ⁵ And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He wondered at their unbelief.

Okay, God is definitely pointing something out to me today.  I have come across, not one, but three Scriptures in my time alone with Him that have to do with “Authority and Submission.”  I am reading through the Bible in a year, and for something to show up in both the Old and New Testament readings that is about the same thing; well I just gotta go deeper on that one.  The first story is the very frightening one that is revealed to us in the Book of Numbers.  Some people gathered themselves together against Moses and dared to challenge Moses’ Authority under God.  Moses just said, “Okay, let’s have God choose.”  The next day they are all together in one place and God tells Moses to have the people back away from those who had challenged him.  Suddenly the ground opens up and swallows them and closes back over them.

Now if that story doesn’t make you shudder, you are stronger than I.  I tremble at God’s Holiness when I read these kind of stories.  The other place where authority is addressed is found in the above related Scripture from Mark 6.  Where did this man get these things, and what is this wisdom given to Him, and such miracles as these performed by His hands? ³ Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? Are not His sisters here with us?”    And they took offense at Him.

God’s choosing of a person, to do a certain task, is so often a mysterious thing.  The people wanted Saul to be King, so God let them have their way. Saul was a terrible King.  When the Sons of Jesse were looked over to be anointed, Jesse didn’t even bother bringing David in from the field.  Yet, David was God’s chosen King.  I will never forget the day God showed me a Scripture from 1 Corinthians, when I thought He was making a mistake in choosing me to do something.  Here’s the Scripture,

^{1 Corinthians 1:26-31}

 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; ²⁷ but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, ²⁸ and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, ²⁹ so that no man may boast before God. ³⁰ But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, ³¹ so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

I knew I was so weak, so simple, so ordinary.  But if God can use a simple, ordinary girl to do what He wants done, than so be it.  I think Mary must have felt that way when the angel Gabriel came to her.  We just need to be yielding to whatever God wants, whomever God chooses, and He will accomplish great things in and through us.  He is the potter, we are they clay.  I will not tell the Potter, what He can do with my life.  That’s up to Him.  I tried that once, and O, what a disaster.

I’m Yielding, yielding, yielding to the Master’s plan.

Receiving, Receiving, receiving what is in His Hand.

Becoming, Becoming, Becoming all that He has foreseen;

I’m yielding all I am, to the Master’s hand