Yield to Be Healed

 

Matthew 20:29-34 (KJV)

29 And as they departed from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. 30 And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. 31 And the multitude rebuked them, because they should hold their peace: but they cried the more, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David. 32 And Jesus stood still, and called them, and said, What will ye that I shall do unto you? 33 They say unto him, Lord, that our eyes may be opened. 34 So Jesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him.

 

In verse 29, we see that there is a great multitude following Jesus. It would be easy for the enemy to convince us that we are just some insignificant person compared to everyone else in the church and even in the world.

That our problems are not all that important.

 

But verse 2 tells us about these 2 blind men. I like that there are 2 blind men in this text, because 1 blind man might say to someone that they are alone and the only one with that problem.

 

But notice that there are two people with identical problems.

 

Sometimes we may feel like we are the only one who has a certain problem in our lives and you might be surprised to find out that you are not alone.

 

I think that’s important to realize. Because being all-alone is a very lonely place to be especially when you are suffering.

 

Matthew 20:30 (KJV) And, behold, two blind men sitting by the way side, when they heard that Jesus passed by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou son of David.

 

The scripture here says that they “cried out.”

 

Now there have been some times in my life when I’ve cried out.

I did it just the other day when I stubbed my little toe on the ottoman in the living room. I heard a crack and honestly thought I broke my toe.

 

I’ve cried out a few times in my life and it wasn’t always because I was in some kind of physical pain.

 

But of all the people that were there that day, these two people are the only ones “crying out” at that moment.

 

It makes me wonder what all had gone on in their lives to get them to the point finally “crying out.”

 

We don’t naturally or easily “cry out” to God.

 

Generally we try to take care of the problem ourselves.

We try to fix the issue with our own abilities.

Our own resources.

Our own talents.

Our own strength.

 

We don’t usually yield to God right away.

It generally takes some ‘bumps on the head’ if I could put it that way.

 

Like the woman with the issue of blood in MT 9:20,

we usually turn to Jesus after we have already spent all that we have

on the things that we think should help us, but what ultimately makes us worse than we were in the beginning.

 

We may not want to say this out loud to the other Christians around us,

but sometimes, Jesus is not always our first resort when something is going on in our lives.

 

Sometimes we turn to all kinds of stuff long before we finally in desperation turn to Him.

 

At that point, it’s more of a “crying out” than a “giving In.”

 

“Have Mercy”

 

Like He would only help you because you are finally begging for the help.

 

With all the stuff that goes on in the world at times, and what goes on in our personal lives, we find it hard to yield to God.

To stop and say, “Ok, Lord. I can’t do this by myself. I need your help.”

 

There are multiple examples of people in the scripture who obviously had problems in their lives, but as they yielded more and more to His presence and His will, He was able to work in their situations.

 

It was not until they reached out to Him that He was able to do something for them. The woman with the issue of blood. The man with the withered hand. The leprous men who cried out to Him.

 

These were people who for many years, if not their whole lives struggled not only with the personal and physical challenges of their situations, but also the emotional wounds and scars.

 

The social stigma of it all that limited who they were and what they were capable of. All the pain, the suffering, and mental anguish until finally they cried out to God.

 

Until finally they said, “I can’t do this by myself, I need God’s help.”

 

And that’s who Jesus was. That’s why He came, so that He could be touched by the feeling of their infirmities and hear their voices.

 

Sometimes we are burdened with so much we forget that God wants to lift that burden off of us.

 

Luke 10:38-42 (KJV)

38 Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. 40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. 41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: 42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

 

He told Martha, “You’re busy about so many things. Mary, she’s being sensitive and you are being busy; right now is a time to be sensitive.”

 

Right now is a time to hear from God.

 

We need to recognize those times in our lives when God is speaking to us

and when He is trying to direct and guide our lives.

 

We think that being busy is an excuse to not make time for God and give Him opportunity to speak into our lives.

 

We’d rather put on a great feast for Him when all the while He just wants to sit and talk to our hearts for a little while.

 

We wonder sometimes why He doesn’t answer our prayers when we want Him to. We wonder sometimes why the job or the health or the family doesn’t change right when we first ask.

 

Many times it’s because as James 4:3 says…

 

James 4:3 (KJV) Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

 

We don’t really know what to pray for. All we are doing is responding to circumstances that we are going through and the pain that we are going through.

 

What we don’t realize is that God is working something out for us,

but He needs us to yield to Him. He needs us to turn to Him.

 

 

We are going in all different directions, doing all kinds of things, trying this and trying that, and even praying for the wrong things, but Jesus is saying, ‘STOP!’

 

Romans 6:16 (KJV) 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?

 

Here is the problem for many of us much of the time.

 

We don’t want to “Yield.”

 

I love green lights, but I hate red lights.

 

Green means go. That’s what I want to do. I want to get to where I want to go.

 

But that red light means stop. I hate stopping. Stopping makes me late. Stopping keeps me from getting where I want to go. Stopping gets in the way of my agenda.

 

And then there are these little triangle yellow signs at certain intersections that mean, “Yield.”

 

Now a lot of people say to yield signs, “Huh?”

 

I wonder what I was supposed to be looking out for?

 

In fact, much of the time we totally ignore the Yield sign. Why? Because we have an agenda. We have a direction we want to go. We have a destination to get to.

 

But what that Yield sign is saying to the traveler is to ‘give way’ to the people who are coming from the other direction.

 

Let them go first. Slow down. Stop if you have to. Pull over even. Let them go instead of you.

We wonder why Jesus hasn’t stepped into our situation sometimes. Could it be that we are in too big of a hurry trying to do things ourselves to just ‘yield’ and let Him do what He wants to do in our lives at that moment?

 

Revelation 3:20 (KJV) Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

 

How many of us can say that we truly feel that God has come into our situation. That His presence can be felt. That His Spirit is operating in the situations of our homes and in our lives.

 

And so we have to think about and realize that His Spirit wants to work in our lives. He said, in the latter part of Isaiah 43:13…

 

Isaiah 43:13 (KJV) Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

 

When we yield to Him, we open up a realm that’s not available to most people, because it’s only open to those who yield to Him.

 

Those that open the door. Those who cry out. Those who are willing to do whatever He says to do, to be in His will.

 

It’s really only open to those who yield themselves.

 

That’s why prayer is so important, because it opens the lines of communication to God.

 

Our prayer needs to be more than, “Hey God, I need your help.” As some last minute desperate cry for help.

 

It needs to be something that He can speak to us through and we can hear from Him.

 

And it’s not just something that we do when something terrible is going on in our lives.

It’s something that we do throughout the day.

 

The Bible says in Luke 18:1…

 

Luke 18:1 (KJV) And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

 

In other words, let those lines of communication with God be open all the time.

 

Don’t allow circumstances to keep you from communicating with Him.

 

Sometimes, all of this “stuff called life” can really discourage us and cause us to doubt and wonder.

 

But in the middle of all of the doubting, somehow we’ve got to allow our understanding to realize the miraculous of our lives and the potential of our situations.

 

To cause us to come to a place of yielding, saying, “I give” to the Lord.

 

Not allowing our flesh to get in the way of what God is trying to do, because He is trying to work in each of our lives. He is trying to work out the complexities of it all.

 

He’s trying to help us find our way.

He’s trying to heal us.

He’s trying to minister to us.

He’s trying to guide us and help us become closer to Him.

 

It takes us yielding to Him and allowing Him to work in our lives. Giving in and letting go when we want to fight to hang onto things that prevent us from fulfilling his purpose in our lives.

 

There does need to come a point where we say, “I give this to you God.”

 

There has to come a point where we say, “I can’t fight this battle any longer.”

 

This battle belongs to you.

 

And when we give it to Him, it’s a fearful thing. When we give it to Him we put it in the hands of a jealous God, an angry God, a loving God, a God who is touched by the feelings of our infirmities, a God who is compassionate, a God who is our Heavenly Father, a God who would give His own life so that we could have a relationship and salvation with Him.

 

This God that we serve, He is well able to help to help us through our storms. He’s able to calm the seas. He’s able to say “Peace be still,” but He’s waiting for someone to say, “I need your help, I can’t do this on my own.”

 

He is waiting for us to Yield.