Friends, something you might not know about me: I have dyslexia and dyspraxia, and for years I worked as a painter and decorator. Up a ladder, I could paint to the left or the right of the cutters and fascia boards. Indoors I could handle a cornice with either hand. I write with my left hand and throw or hit with my right. In Scotland they call that kind of mixed skill “kippy-handed.” It is not the usual pattern, but it made me useful on the job. I could keep working without climbing down and switching sides every few minutes.

That practical ability reminds me of a group of men who joined David while he was still a fugitive at Ziklag. 1 Chronicles 12 tells us they were from Benjamin, Saul’s own tribe. The Scripture says they were “armed with bows, using both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows with the bow. They were of Benjamin, Saul’s brethren.” They were mighty men, helpers in the war. Their skill with either hand set them apart. In a fight they were not limited to one side. They could adapt to whatever the battle required.

These men did more than bring skill. They brought loyalty. They left Saul’s side and came over to David while David was still on the run. That was not a small decision. Saul was still king, and these fellows were his relatives. Yet they chose the man God had anointed. Their ambidextrous ability would have been wasted if they had stayed with the old order. By yielding themselves to David they put that skill into the right hands. The chapter lists the names of the leaders and key men who came at that time—a select band rather than a large numbered force. Later, when the tribes gathered at Hebron, thousands from Benjamin came over as well. But it began with those who were willing to yield what they had to the king God had chosen.

David himself knew something about loyalty. Saul did not always deserve the loyalty David showed him. Saul was unstable. Jealousy took hold of him, and more than once he tried to kill David. Yet when David had clear opportunities to strike Saul down—in the cave at En Gedi and later in the wilderness camp—he would not do it. He said the Lord forbid that he should stretch out his hand against the Lord’s anointed. David left the timing and the outcome with God. That kind of restraint does not come from natural strength. It comes from a heart that is close to the Lord and yielded to Him.

The word that ties these things together is yielded. Those Benjamites yielded their skill and their loyalty to David. David yielded the matter of Saul into the Lord’s hands. Yieldedness is not complicated. It is simply coming close to the Lord and staying there, letting Him have the say over our hands, our abilities, and our days. God is not waiting for our wiring to match some ideal pattern. He is not looking for men who can only work one way. He looks for the yielded heart—the one who says, “Here I am, use me as I am.”

That yielded heart is also the heart that grows in sanctification. The more the Lord sanctifies us, the more readily we yield to Him. Sanctification is the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit making us more like Jesus. It is not something we manufacture by trying harder. It is what the Spirit does as we stay close to the Lord and walk in the light of His Word. As that work goes on, the heart becomes more sensitive to Him. The old resistance loses its grip. We find ourselves more willing to say yes to the Lord, even in the ordinary things. Yieldedness grows because the Spirit is changing us from the inside.

I heard Philip Sowerbutts on a podcast that years ago, at the Keswick Convention, many earnest believers sought what they called a higher Christian life or a crisis of full surrender. They hoped to enter a more victorious state after conversion, where the power of sin would be steadily counteracted by faith. Some folks returned year after year because the strength of that experience had faded and the old patterns of sinful life had returned. The longing for holiness was a real hunger, and much of the teaching on dependence was helpful. But the Word in the New Testament pattern is gradual sanctification, not a one-time leap into a higher state that ends the struggle. We are justified once and for all by faith in Christ. From that moment the Spirit begins the lifelong work of making us more like Jesus. It continues until the day we are glorified and see Him face to face. In the meantime we still contend with the flesh. We still need daily dependence and daily yielding.

When a born-again believer sins, he does not lose his standing or fall out of some special level of holiness. He comes before the Father, confesses the sin, and receives cleansing. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The blood of Jesus keeps on cleansing us as we walk in the light. We do not climb back into a higher plane; we simply come again to the One who already holds us. Confession is the normal way a child of God deals with the sin that still remains. It keeps the heart soft and yielded.

The applications are straightforward; the Lord's offer is what you already have—whether your hands work the usual way or not. Be loyal to Him even when people or circumstances are unstable, leaving the timing and the outcome in His hands.

Yield daily, not as a one-time crisis, but as the ongoing posture of a heart that stays close.

Receive others as they are, knowing the Lord can use them when the heart is loyal. And remember that the greater David, the Lord Jesus, has already yielded Himself completely for us. Because of that, we can come to Him as we are—quirks, mixed abilities, and all—and find that He receives us and puts us to work in His kingdom.

My mixed handedness, and the quirks that come with dyslexia and dyspraxia, are simply part of the package the Lord gave me. The same is true for each of us. The skills we have, ordinary as they may seem, become useful when they are placed in the hands of the true King. The men of Benjamin were not perfect, and they came from the wrong side at first. But they ended up among David’s mighty men because they came to him and stayed. That is the grace of God. He takes what we bring and puts it to work when the heart is loyal and yielded.

Keep drawing close to the Lord, this is truly where strength and usefulness are found. The hands God has given you are enough when they are offered to Him.

Sanctification and yieldedness grow together as the Spirit works, until the day we are glorified, the call remains the same: stay near, keep yielding, confess when you fall, and trust Him to complete what He has begun. He knows how to make it count.