Ultimate Surrender

I don’t usually write about my faith but I’ve collected so many thoughts the past six months that I had to start to write them down. Funny thing, the first writing I will do is about something I read today.

I usually read my devotional often but didn’t read it for a few days. The readings really uplift me for the day when I feel overwhelmed with things in life. The entry for today was really good and the topic was about surrendering to God.

The scripture it mentioned was Mark 10:28-29. “Peter said to him, ‘We have left everything to follow you!’/'I tell you the truth,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel…’”

For me and the gospel…

What I learned from this was that the purpose of following Jesus was not for what the disciples themselves would receive but for the gospel and Jesus Christ. We ourselves in this day in age must be careful of surrender that is motivated by personal gain and benefits that may result. For example, I myself use to think before having a relationship with God , “I want to go and surrender to God because I want the sin in my life gone, because I want to be made Holy.” Being delievered from Sin and being made holy are the result of being right with God, but surrender resulting from this kind of thinking is not the true nature of being a Christian. I had to find this out myself. Our motive for total surrender shouldn’t be for personal gain at all. We can not be self-centered that we go to God only when we want something from Him, and not for God himself. It is like we are saying, “No, God, I don’t want you; I want me. But I do want YOU to clean me and fill me with your Holy Spirit. I want to be showcased on your trophy chest so I can tell everyone, ‘This is what God has done for me.’” Gaining heaven, being saved from sin, and being made useful to God are things that should never even be a concern in real surrender. Genuine ultimate surrender is a personal prevalent choice for Jesus Christ himself.

Where is Jesus in our lives when we have a concern about our relationships here on Earth? Will we desert him with this excuse-”Yes, Lord, I heard you call me, but my friends need me and I have my own interests. I just can’t go further.” I was in this boat before, even recently.

Luke 9:57-62: “As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’/ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.’/ He said to another man, ‘Follow me.’ But the man replied,’Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’/ Jesus said to them,’Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”/ Still another man said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.’/ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”

“I just can’t go further,” we say.

“Then”, Jesus says, “you cannot follow me.”

Luke 14:26-33: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate their father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters–yes, even his own life–he cannot be my disciple./ And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple./ Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?/ For he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,/ saying, ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’/ Or supposed a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and  consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?/ If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace./ In the same way, any of you who does not give everything he has cannot be my disciple.”

True surrender will always go beyond natural devotion. If we just give up ourselves to Him, God will surrender Himself to embrace all those around us and will meet their needs, which were created by our surrender. Be careful of stopping anywhere short of total surrender to God. I know very well how that is. Knowing God but not fully surrendering areas of my life that I wanted for myself. Most of us only have a vision of what surrender really means, but we have never truly experienced it. I want that experience. I yearn for that experience.

Jeremy Camp “I Surrender to You”

-STAN