Today we look at the last item in our living ARTFULLY series: “Yielded.” When I first developed this acrostic, it was ARTFUL, ending with “Loving.” Then I added “Life-giving” and therefore needed the “Y” to finish it out. “Yielded” seemed like a reasonable choice. After all, submission to God is a concept taught throughout scripture. For example,

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 4.7, 8, ESV)

But when I went to attach a scripture to the overview I presented last week, I was surprised that “yielded” is hard to find. In fact, it seems to be only in the King James’ version of Romans 6:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. (Romans 6.12, 13, KJV)

So “yielded” is a given. The question is, “Yielded to whom?”

Several of the ARTFULLY values need that clarification:

• Abiding…in what or whom? One can abide in sports and give one’s life to following a particular team. On a church mission trip once, I sat in front of two guys on the bus and listened to them discuss the Auburn University football roster. They went through it by player number – each guy’s position, how good he was, where he was on the depth chart, etc. WITHOUT anything in front of them! Those guys “abided” in Auburn football.
• Focused…on what? Again, it could be anything. A lot of folks in this country are focused on making money and buying as many “toys” as they can.
• Yielded. When I developed ARTFULLY, I assumed “Yielded to God.” But Romans 6 says we have a choice:

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, KJV)

So let’s resolve to…

• Abide in Christ
• Focus on His Kingdom (“Your Kingdom come”)
• Yield to him (“Your will be done”)

Some of it is right there in the Lord’s prayer!

Join me in living ARTFULLY

• Abiding
• Rejoicing
• Thankful
• Focused
• Unattached
• Loving
• Life-giving
• Yielded