Yield Yourselves unto God

Two passages in the Book of Mormon speak of the need to yield ourselves to the Lord and to His Spirit. King Benjamin gave us these well-known words of the angel: “For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father” (Mosiah 3:19). To come unto the Lord we have to yield ourselves to His Spirit, submitting our wills to His. Another passage describes how some righteous Nephites in a time of wickedness did just that: “Nevertheless they did fast and pray oft, and did wax stronger and stronger in their humility, and firmer and firmer in the faith of Christ, unto the filling their souls with joy and consolation, yea, even to the purifying and the sanctification of their hearts, which sanctification cometh because of their yielding their hearts unto God” (Helaman 3:35). To yield implies having the humility to let God prevail in our lives and turning our hearts so that we desire what He wants above our own wills.

                Many more passages in the Book of Mormon speak of how some choose to yield to sin and temptation and the adversary. Jacob wrote, “O, my beloved brethren, remember the awfulness in transgressing against that Holy God, and also the awfulness of yielding to the enticings of that cunning one. Remember, to be carnally-minded is death, and to be spiritually-minded is life eternal” (2 Nephi 9:39). Nephi lamented about himself, “And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul?” (2 Nephi 4:27) In describing a future time among his people, Nephi wrote, “they sell themselves for naught; for, for the reward of their pride and their foolishness they shall reap destruction; for because they yield unto the devil and choose works of darkness rather than light, therefore they must go down to hell” (2 Nephi 26:10). Mormon similarly described another time of great wickedness when the Nephites yielded themselves to the adversary: “Now all this was done, and there were no wars as yet among them; and all this iniquity had come upon the people because they did yield themselves unto the power of Satan” (3 Nephi 7:5). Alma questioned the people of Zarahemla, “I say unto you, can ye think of being saved when you have yielded yourselves to become subjects to the devil?” (Alma 5:20) Amulek used similar language when he lamented the wickedness of the people of Ammonihah: “O ye wicked and perverse generation, why hath Satan got such great hold upon your hearts? Why will ye yield yourselves unto him that he may have power over you, to blind your eyes, that ye will not understand the words which are spoken, according to their truth?” (Alma 10:25) All of these passages suggest that there is a choice that we must make between yielding ourselves to God or yielding ourselves to the devil and sin.

                Paul highlighted this choice when he wrote this to the Romans: “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 6:13). To yield ourselves to God implies that we choose righteousness over sin and that we choose to care more about what He desires of us than what the world would have us do. We must be firm in the face of temptation, determined to yield to God and not to sin as Moroni encouraged us: “Ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:28). Each day we must answer the question through our actions: to whom will ye yield?