Logically, I know after reading God’s word that surrendering all to the Lord will be the best thing I ever do…
Surrendering all to the Lord has been a constant theme in all serious moments of contemplation regarding the state of my spiritual walk with the Lord. Every year at Hill Country Bible Church UT (now Midtown), we participated in the 35-day spiritual journey (similar to Lent) when we gave up something in our lives and replaced time spent on that item with reading scripture, praying and spending time with God. These yearly reflection periods were something I always enjoyed. I normally give up television. Every year I participated, God always revealed to me I needed to surrender all to Him. What does that mean, Lord?
As time passed, I knew that I was not surrendering to God in my daily interactions with people. My reaction to unkind people: “Oh my goodness, this person is so rude.” I would respond back with rudeness of my own. “I don’t want to love this person today.” I would minimize my interactions with that person as much as I could.Sleep. I did not want to surrender my sleep. I knew that if I woke up early before work and read my Bible and prayed, my day would be so greatly impacted for the Lord with internal peace and kindness toward others. I wasn’t willing to surrender my sleep.Time spent watching TV. I LOVE watching TV. I wanted to spend time daily with the Lord setting time aside to do my devotionals, but Quantico was just too good to turn off to spend time with God. Crazy driving. I wasn’t willing to show grace in traffic and drive patiently behind a slow driver. I wasn’t a representation of Christ on the road.
My purpose of this confession is to be open and honest about, when it comes down to it, my sin: not submitting to Christ every minute of every day. Scripture says “Encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you will be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Hebrews 3:13) Also, “Confess your sins to one another and you will be healed.” (James 5:16) Jesus said, “Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3: 20-21)
Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” I want abundant life! God can give me the fullest life he intended for me. Why wouldn’t I want that?
What about you? What have you been holding onto and have not been willing to surrender to God? What percentage of your devotion to him are you holding back? Are you loving Him with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength 100% (Luke 10:27, Mark 12:30)? 85%? 70%?
I recently read Out of the Desert…Into the Life God Fully Intended by Luis Palau, an Argentinian American international evangelist. Mr. Palau mentions in his book the key to surrendering to the Lord is to let the Holy Spirit do His work. I, in my flesh, cannot do it on my own. Jesus said, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38). Romans, chapter 8, has some good points toward this struggle. The solution scripture offers is letting the Holy Spirit living in us do the work that we, ourselves, cannot do.
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,[b] God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.[c] And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.” NIV
Will you stand with me today in committed surrender and submission to the Lord? However that looks for you?
Hugs,
Eileen