Mark spoke this evening about how we are praying for and expecting 2016 to be a ‘yield year.’ There is a two-fold meaning to this word, meaning to give way or surrender and also to gather in a harvest.
Surrender
1 Chron 29:7-8 talks about yielding to God and how we should let God lead and mould us all the time. Jesus sets the example for us in this regard, praying for God’s will to be done above His own.
Harvest
Lev 26:3-5 talks of the land yielding a harvest and in Matt 13, Jesus tells His disciples the parable of the sower, talking of four seeds planted in different kinds of soil. Even in shallow, rocky soil, the seed yields a huge increase in proportion to the seed sowed, and in other soils, the increase is even greater (30-fold, 60-fold or 100-fold.) We need to be looking for that same kind of yield from our lives.
God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine (see Eph 3:20-21), but we need to pray in faith, believing that He will save our family and friends. Our part is to pray and to tell; the Holy Spirit is the one who will give the increase, who convicts and saves. John 15:1-17 reminds us of the need to abide in Christ if we are to bear fruit and to ask in faith (see especially Jn 15:7, 16). Let’s continue to believe and expect God to do great things this year.
