Perfectly Yielded to God

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”    —Matthew 5:48

We seldom see perfection in human lives. Some of our heroes who seemed perfect in their fields have fallen from greatness. A gifted pastor succumbs to temptation and brings embarrassment upon himself and the Church. An all-time great college coach is stripped of his records and shamed because he did not do enough to protect young people. Possibly the greatest golfer to ever swing a club trips and falls into mediocrity. The face of world cycling admits to being a fraud and a bully. Where is perfection?

Even in the Bible, some of the most devoted followers of God stumble and fall, some badly. King David, “a man after [God’s] my own heart,” committed grievous sins: adultery, murder, and cover up (Acts 13:22). Peter, the Rock upon which Jesus declared He would build His Church, denies that he even knew the Lord (Matthew 26:74). The only human being in history to be totally and completely yielded to God is the God-man, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Jesus was “tempted in every way, just as we were—yet was without sin.”

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls us to “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). Since the Scriptures record no examples of Christians who were perfect and clearly states that we have all sinned, Jesus’ command to be perfect is either a cruel joke or must mean something other than absolute, perfect performance.

In Methodist history and doctrine, Christian Perfection is understood to mean being perfectly surrendered to God or being made perfect in love. Our will is to do God’s Will in the Holy Spirit’s power. Our desire is to please the Lord in all things. We really do love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27). In our human strength, we may stumble and fall, but like King David, we find forgiveness and restoration as we seek God with our whole heart.

Dwight L. Moody, one of this world’s greatest evangelists, began as a poorly educated, un-ordained shoe salesman who felt the call of God to preach. During this time, Moody heard Henry Varley say, “The world has yet to see what God can do with and for and through and in a man who is fully and wholly consecrated to Him.” As Moody contemplated these words, he concluded that Varley meant any person. They didn’t have to be educated, or brilliant, or anything else. By the Holy Spirit within him, Moody decided to be one of those men (Experiencing God, 47). The Lord mightily used Moody as one of these persons perfectly yielded to God. He became one of the greatest evangelists of modern times preaching revival services across Great Britain and America where tens of thousands came to Christ.

If God can take a little shepherd boy and make him the king of His chosen people and take a poor, uneducated shoe salesman and use him as an evangelist to nations, God can use us. If we will perfectly yield our wills to God and be filled with His Holy Spirit, the world has yet to see what God might do with and for and through and in you and me.

Have you sinned and fallen from grace? Of course, you have. We all have. Confess it to God. Turn from your sin and ask the Lord Jesus to forgive you and fill you with His Holy Spirit. Surrender your will to God and moment by moment, yield your life to the Lord. Let’s see what God will do in and through you.