Yielded – The Presidential Prayer Team

For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. – Philippians 2:13

Lewis Sperry Chafer was an American theologian who founded and was the first president of Dallas Theological Seminary. Of doing the will of God, he wrote, “A yieldedness to the will of God is not demonstrated by some one particular issue: it is rather having taken the will of God as the rule of one’s life. To be in the will of God is simply being willing to do His will without reference to any particular thing he may choose. It is reflecting His will to be final, even before we know what He may wish to do.

“It is therefore not a question of being willing to do some one thing; it is a question of being willing to do anything, when, where and how it may seem best in His heart of love. It is taking the normal and natural position of child-like trust which has already consented to the wish of the Father even before anything of the outworking of His wish is revealed.”

Today’s verse speaks of the person who has truly yielded his own will to that of the Father. It is then that God begins His work in you. St. Alphonsus said, “The man who follows his own will independently of God’s is guilty of a kind of idolatry. Instead of adoring God’s will, he, in a certain sense, adores his own.”

Yield to the leading of the Lord and do not give in to the temptation to think that you are your own best guide. Pray that the people of America would learn to place their confidence in God, the only One who knows and holds the future. Ask that believers serving in Congress would be yielded to the will of God for the nation.

Today’s Verse: Philippians 2:13

for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: Philippians 2:12-18

¹²Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
¹⁴Do all things without grumbling or disputing, ¹⁵that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, ¹⁶holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. ¹⁷Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. ¹⁸Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.