I think if we’re honest,
we’d have to admit that it is HARD totally surrender everything to Jesus...
To be so completely Open our hearts and be honest with Jesus... to tell Him our thoughts, our plans, our dreams, our fears... To expose our heart in a completely open and honest way.
To put ALL our chips on Jesus, ...so to speak.
What isn’t hard is
convincing ourselves, that we ARE surrendered to Jesus.
Because we don’t cheat on our spouse, we take care of our family, we listen to worship music during the day ... after all, we been doing this Jesus thing for years.
And if I can be straightforward, we’re surrendered... The question is...to what?
So, let’s take a just a moment
and take a sincere inventory of our heart-- an honest diagnostic:
Ask yourself, what do you
spend your time thinking about? Dreaming about?
Striving for? Hoping for? What comes to mind?
Maybe...
Comfort? The approval of
man? Safety? Money?
How everyone else is wrong and you are right (a.k.a. legalism)?
You see... it’s one thing
to sing “at the cross I surrender my life,” but it’s another to walk that out
in our day-to-day life.
It’s HARD to surrender
your life! To lay down our pride and preference!
I would even go as far to
say that it is downright impossible...
In fact, (now listen carefully) ...it’s just as impossible to live out the Christian life as it is to come into the Christian life.
Perhaps a more theological
way to say it is: sanctification is just as much of a supernatural,
God-empowered miracle as salvation.
As much as we needed Him
to save us, to that same degree we need Him to sanctify us.
We need Him for
“surrender.”
How does this happen? Where do we run for this kind of help?
...To A Place!
There is a place... and that
place is the cross! Just like a salvation...
And on the rugged cross
there hung a Man.
And flowing from that
Man’s wounds is the power to not just save us but sanctify us.
In Philippians 1:6 tells us, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”
After all... flowing from
Jesus’ veins is our power to surrender today.
Such is the power of The Gospel!
It’s the good news of
Jesus applied to our drive home after church and throughout the week.
It’s the Gospel into our commute to work. And to the everyday drudgery of our day. It’s the Gospel preached to ourselves through the hard hours of the day.
John Piper said it well:
“Do you feed your faith day by day with the promises of this triumphant gospel?
Do you, as a believer, go to the gospel day by day and savor its power in
verses like Romans 8:32, "He who did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all
things?"
You see, the gospel is the good news that God gave us His Son, so as to obtain for us everything that would be good for us. Everything we need to live surrendered lives.
The gospel is the power
that gives us victory over temptation to despair, to pride, to greed and to
lust.
The gospel alone can triumph over every obstacle and bring us to eternal joy. Whatever it costs... stand in it... hold it fast... believe on it... feed on it... savor it... count it more precious than silver or gold. The gospel will save you... And it will sanctify you... And it alone.”
Just as we’re told in Romans
8:11, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, He
who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through His Spirit, who lives in you.”
Have ever listened to the
song by Chris Tomlin, “At the Cross”?
Listen to the words of
this song... It's all about surrendering to Jesus.
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