Surrender

by Jeff Patton

“Surrender is not the best way to live.  It is the only way to live.  Nothing else works.  All other approaches lead to frustration, disappointment and self-destruction.”   The Purpose Driven Life  by Rick Warren, “The Heart of Worship” p. 96 (Electronic Version).

 All to Jesus,

I surrender,

All to Him I freely give

 Really?   All?  To Jesus?

There are at least two ways to look at this.

First is the legalistic sense in which if you don’t “surrender your all” you won’t get far.

The second is the graceful sense, that by surrendering all to Jesus your life will be all it is intended to be.

John Wesley said he never saw a heart totally devoted to God.  I bet know one has.  Yet the surrender of the heart is the issue, the one issue that will not leave us alone, will not get out of the way.  It is amazing to me how God will pursue us, chase us, until God catches us.   He will dismantle us to rebuild us.  He will tear us down to build us up.  It is counter intuitive, but as I go on this adventure I am more and more aware that God is always on the throne and that God is always attempting, ALWAYS, to move us into a deeper relationship with God.

Why do we fight it so?  Why has God designed us with this natural tendency to “fight”?  At times I know we need to fight “unto the death”, like against falsehood, lies and the work of satan in our midst.  At other times I know we are to surrender to Jesus and allow Jesus to fight our battles.

So on the graceful side, I hope that today you will surrender your life to Jesus.   And remember this isn’t a “once and done deal”.  Tomorrow you will have to surrender your life again, and maybe three time the next day.

But it is worth it.

Shine bright