A co-worker was relating how her daughter wanted to go trick-or-treating tonight but they weren’t going to because “God would rather us be at church tonight than trick-or-treating in the neighborhood“.

Thoughts? Insights? Rants?

Full disclosure - our family will be taking it’s chances in the neighborhood…

I have a question so stick with me for a few paragraphs…

In typical Evangelical parlance, a Christian who is growing in spiritual maturity is supposed to become more adept at yielding to the Spirit(some people might say God or Jesus - no big difference from my perspective). This also might be stated as abiding in Christ as per John 15:4-5. Either way, the gist is that we need to give over control of what we do or how we respond to someone else.

The impetus behind learning to yield is that we know we can never obey God out of our own power or self-effort. Sure, we might control our temper, express love towards someone, etc. on a temporary basis but it will always be short-lived. And some would argue that doing “good” in this manner is doing it without faith and so is not pleasing to God anyway.

The solution then, is to “utilize” the power of the Holy Spirit which indwells and empowers us. And we do that by yielding - which is letting God’s power work through us instead of relying on self-effort. You could say that we’re to step aside and let God have the “right of way”. Or that we are a conduit through which the power of God flows. I’ve heard it said many different ways.

Just to clarify, the paragraphs above aren’t unique to me but a paraphrase of how I’ve heard this taught.

The question then becomes - isn’t yielding just another form of self-effort? And if not then how would you classify it? I’ve heard such a big distinction between self-effort and yielding but I’m having a hard time seeing the difference in what it takes to do either one.

Thoughts on this anyone? There have to be other ways of looking at this whole concept. It could just be that a dichotomy has been presented that doesn’t really exist. But, I’ve just been fed this particular viewpoint for so long that it’s become de rigueur and I need someone else to think through it with me.

Comments are always welcome.