Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Step 3: Surrender Your Life To God

The third step to moving from a life that is with Christ to a life that is in Christ is to surrender it into his hands. It is not something that many of us find easy to do given the connotations of the word (to yield, give up, submit, abandon, relinquish, cede, waive), or the negative associations it brings to mind (defeat, arrest, capitulation). With Christ, however, it doesn't bring about a loss of freedom (or a loss of face), but strangely enough, an increase of it.

Consider a problem that you currently face—and don't tell me you don't have any problems because I won't believe you! It could be a relationship that isn't working satisfactorily, a financial difficulty, an addiction that you are struggling with, a health issue pertaining to you or somebody in your family, a persistant sin, a slandered reputation, or one of a million other possible things. You worry about it/them constantly, getting more and more frustrated at your inability to resolve the problem. You are burdened with it. You are chained to it. You are a prisoner to it. Where is the freedom?

Now, when we surrender everything into God's hands we relinquish all that we are holding on to, including our problems, and when he takes them over, we are free! (Picture carrying a sack of bricks on your back that you just swing over to Jesus for the right imagery!) We can't surrender, however, without the acknowledgement that God is in control over everything, including the circumstances of our lives. How do we get that understanding? Consider what Jesus once asked a crowd of anxious listeners.

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?" (Luke 12:25-26)

Surely we will all acknowledge that none of us can add a single minute to our lives, much less a single hour. We cannot because God is in control of our life. And if God is in control of the most important thing in our lives, which is our life itself, doesn't it stand to reason that he is control over everything about our lives—our families, our health, our finances, everything. Then, why try to believe that we are in control and thus imprison ourselves?

"I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! (Luke 12:22-24)

So give it all to him, not just your problems and your troubles, but everything—heart, mind, soul, body—and let him take full control. And just see what happens next.

1 comment:

  1. Jesus, I surrender my all to you today. Make my life count for you in everything I say and do.
    Amen

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