Surrender

Why don’t you
just die?


Yes...why not? It could be that when you die you will find a better life.
Have you thought about it or considered what your life would be like if you died to your rights, expectations and demands. If you had no rights at all, what would be there for fellow man or circumstance to violate?
What if you died to all your preferences and your likes? Would that not make you one more accommodating…spontaneous and free? Would not your disappointments and complaints become much less if you waived your expectations?
Child of God, I dare you to think of the surrender and absolute abandonment that God expects from you and I. He says of food and raiment…worry not. Of riches and wealth he says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. I am of the opinion that He must feel belittled when we worry about such elements. Indeed it is, that in our worry we portray our faithlessness and distrust of the only one who gave all for us. He has made clear his intention. Not to have us live in want but to lavish us with blessings untold, if we would seek him. See how he probed Peter’s heart at breakfast asking, “do you love me more than these?” Thrice he queried him till Peter was well weary of the same. It may be hard to tell, but in all, Christ may have been alluding to the other disciples or to the rich breakfast from Peter’s fresh catch of fish.
Friend, if you are in any way like me, then you have some ground to cover in surrendering your entire self to God. It is appalling to think of how less we are willing to trust the Master with that which we treasure! But perhaps what makes us shy of absolute surrender is the fact that we do not want to loose our rights to what we cherish. It must be the finality of surrender that makes us reluctant to let go of our lives. Have you thought about it this way: If you chose today to surrender your school life to Christ, you would have no right to be in school or to attain your scholarly dreams! You would die to any such right. If you surrendered your love life to Christ, you would have no right to have a partner in life... and on, and on. If, subsequently, God chose to never give you any of those as a gift, you would not wag your finger angrily at Him for you would have absolved yourself of any right to demand from him what you want.
Was not that the state of Paul the apostle? Indeed he was a man dead to his self and his rights. This is evident in what he was ready to endure for the sake of the gospel. He was at one time stoned by the Jews from Antioch and Iconium. He was literally dragged out of the city where he had been preaching. Paul had been so fatally injured from the stoning that they supposed him to be dead. However, as the disciples stood round about him. He rose up and went back into the city. It is a miracle that Paul did not die from the stoning. But a bigger miracle to ponder is how Paul was able to simply dust himself off and head back strait into the city! He was going to preach to the dwellers there if it killed him! He was dead to his rights. He was dead to his freedom. He was dead to his comfort. He had died to his expectations and his preferences. There were no pre-conditions that God would have to satisfy to have Paul’s service and loyalty. If Paul would receive any good-will along the way, it would be a pure gift, not a demand on his part.
Yet here we are today…and we don’t cease to approach God with demands, expectations, pre-conditions, and personal preferences. Have you observed how we gripe and grumble when we feel God is not giving us a fair deal? Or how quick we pull our hand off the plough when we begin to least as suspect that serving God is not going to grant us the return we have supposed it should?
We have shown ourselves selfish by inherent nature! We won’t even give until we are persuaded that it is a seed that is going to lead to a definite, quantifiable harvest. We will not surrender our rights of choice to God lest he gives us something short of our likes. We will not surrender cherished relationships lest he takes our loved ones away. The one whom we profess so outspokenly, we invite only to an arms length!
I urge you as I feel urged from within. That demands and pre-conditions don’t work with God. God’s blessings are availed to all his children out of his nature of compassion and grace. But he indeed is better pleased by the child who approaches him with arms open wide and an attitude of absolute abandonment and surrender. Such a life he does not cease to abundantly bless and endow.
Will you surrender your life to God today? Will you give over ownership and control of your life to him and be willing to do and say only that which he will have you do and say? Can you surrender your choices to him and ask to be led by him? Are you wiling to die to self and have Christ live through you? When you die such a death, you will realize that the fear of this death was your only hindrance to a full resurrected life in Christ. Die…and then really live.

Matthew 6:25-34;
Acts 14: 19, 20;
John 21: 15-17