Failure to Yield

I got a ticket on my way home from a doctor's appointment today. Written on it were the words, "Failure to Yield." Ironically, it was a police car that I had failed to yield to.  Epic fail... I know.  Even worse was the reason I had failed to yield, I was holding my cell phone to my ear while merging.  After politely accepting the ticket, I drove off, thankful that he hadn't seen me on my cell phone. I kept hearing three words repeating themselves over and over in my head... "failure to yield, failure to yield, failure to yield..." I could tell that the Holy Spirit was leading me to look into this a little deeper when I got home.

Upon arriving home, the first thing I did was look up the definition of the word yield. The first two definitions had to do with farming crops. Then I came across definition #3...

yield: to give up, as to superior power or authority.

The next step for me was to see what God's word has to say about the word "yield."  Like the dictionary, the bible had many references to farming crops that "yield" a harvest. Then I came across Joshua Chapter 24.  Joshua had just rebuked the Israelites for their waywardness from God. They responded by telling him, "We will serve the Lord."

"Now then," said Joshua, "throw away the foreign gods that are among you and yield your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel." -Joshua 24:23

How can we yield our hearts to God?  Going back to the definition, we should "give up" our hearts to the LORD (who just so happens to be the ultimate superior power and authority.) This can only take place when we are willing to throw away the foreign gods that are among us. Now you may say, "I have no foreign gods."  Just because you do not pray to a statue or a gold figurine does not mean you have no foreign god.  A foreign god is anything other than God whom you worship. It is the "what" or "who" to which you currently yield your heart. What or who do you live for? What or who is your everything? Is it God? If not, it is your idol.

God is the only one who is able to see what is inside of our hearts. He recognizes the difference between a heart that is after him and a heart that worships idols. 

Here are some examples of idols I have lived for in the past that I have had to yield to God:

*boyfriends (relationships before I met my husband.)
*having the perfect body (resulting in bulimia and self obsession)
*material possessions (cars, cosmetics, clothes, neighborhoods, etc.)
*status (I thought I needed certain criteria checked off of a list in order to be happy in life.)

Each of these things, at one point or another, were what I woke up for every morning instead of Jesus. They had completely consumed my thought process. My heart was not the Lord's, but it belonged to other people and/or things. With my mouth I said, "I love you Lord," but my heart told him the truth.  My life yielded no spiritual fruit, only the fruit of living for idols.

I will humbly accept the ticket that I got from the police officer today stating, "Failure to Yield." But I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I heard that same sentence being spoken out of the mouth of my heavenly Father.

"I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols." -Isaiah 42:8

Father in heaven,
You alone are worthy of our adoration and praise. Please reveal to us any idols we may have in our lives that we need to throw away so we can genuinely and completely yield our hearts to you. Give us the strength to do it.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.