The Gift Of Surrender
I did not grow up in the Church; quite the opposite. My father was an alcoholic, my home life chaotic at best. You never knew if you were going to get slapped across the room or hugged, all depending on dads’ level of intoxication. But that didn’t stop Jesus! He invaded our lives when I was 15 and my whole family was saved including my Father.
Getting saved so young and with no religious upbringing, I had no concept of what Christianity was or really meant in totality. I just knew from the little gospel track I had read, that Jesus had died for me and I wanted to serve him. I remember from the beginning that I wanted to know everything God required of me because after all, He had given everything to save me.
Now after 45 years of walking out my commitment, I understand a few more things now than I did then. One thing being the real cost of Christianity. I don’t remember sacrifice and total commitment being in the fine print; but it’s there.
We don’t start out fully comprehending this concept but, as we grow, we begin to realize if we are going to be a Christian, little by little what we think, feel or want will always be secondary to what God wants from us. My will, will need to die bit by painful bit as I learn to conform to His will.
Christianity is entering into a Covenant with God. A covenant is an agreement between two parties, us and God. Marriage is symbolic of this. We covenant with our partner to do or not to do certain things. While every set of wedding vows is different, one condition of the marriage covenant is we promise to be faithful to our partner. Having faith in one another and obedience to our promises are paramount for a marriage to work.
How would we feel if our partner was unfaithful to us; deciding to go out and have a relationship with another person? Or if they spent most of their spare time with hobbies or their friends and we were ignored or not a priority? We would feel wounded, left out, not loved, discarded or just feel used.
Just like us, God takes cheating on Him very personally. What do I mean by cheating? When I as a believer who made a covenant and committed my life to God, decide to spend more time with my friends, my hobbies, my own interests and desires than I do with Jesus in worship, prayer, Bible study or connected to a local Body in service, I am essentially being unfaithful to Jesus. He gave us his life, now he wants us to give him ours. #selah
(I am not saying we don’t get to have a life including hobbies and other people, it’s all about our hearts not just our actions. We are humans living in this world, God understands we have other commitments.)
Holiness sounds like an old fashioned word but it basically means to be “set apart” for. We are set apart for a special purpose. It means undivided or wholeness. God doesn’t want our leftovers; He wants all of us. We don’t have to be perfect but just offer our whole selves, not just part of our lives an hour on Sunday morning.
We don’t get to negotiate how much of our lives we want to give to God. He wants it all. Obviously, we don’t get saved one day and know and do all of this perfectly. Christianity is a daily choice to surrender more and more of ourselves to God. Subsequently, losing more and more of our own will to his.
This is not a new concept but one God asked of every human he ever raised up for his purpose. David, Abraham, Joseph, Ester, Jacob, Paul, the Disciples and even Jesus. Jesus said of himself, “For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.” John 6:38.
I haven’t always laid down my will perfectly for God every time he’s asked me to. It’s hard. Sacrifice is hard. It’s basically crucifying your own flesh every time you tell it no and choose to obey God; and it hurts to die. But the pain is well worth it.
Even though we initially accept Jesus, living out Christianity is a life long process. It’s every day choosing to offer up more of me to have more of Him. Sounds simpler than it feels for sure.
A basic principle to learn about living for God is to remember, nothing about this Christian life is about us. It’s not about being liked, having a bunch of money, being healthy, getting our way or even liking what He asks of us. It’s about surrender; for that is all he is asking of us. Just getting up every day and surrendering more of ourselves to his will.
When we do this, we soon realize, his ways are so much better than ours and living for something other than ourselves is more satisfying than we could ever have imagined.
Father, we know we need help with this concept. We know we have failed this many times. But today we want your Spirit to help us. Help us surrender more to you, help us love better, serve better, be better tomorrow than we were today. Give us the grace to lay it all down, to take up our Crosses and follow you better. In the end I pray we look and act more like Christ and less like us, that when people see us, they see Jesus reaching through our lives into theirs. In Jesus name…amen.