I Surrender All?

Many of the songs I've been listening to seem to revolve around a common theme - surrender. And this includes more than just worship; Toby Mac's new CD, Eye On It, has been convicting me too!

We really have to be more careful what we're singing. I've been singing words like: "My dreams, my fears, my family, my career, take it away God." And, "All that I hide, could You bring it to life? Could You open my eyes and show me?" I bought Eye On It a few days ago, and while I'm loving the music, yesterday I finally realized the depth of the lyrics I was singing.

Another song I've been listening to has 1 line that grips me every time I hear it: "I've walked by this fire so many times, but now I'm coming in." How many times in my life have I said "no" to God? How many times have I been too afraid to really let Him in? How many things have I missed out on because I couldn't give Him freedom to move and work on me?

Too many times. And for way too long. If I was God, I would have given up on me a long time ago. In fact, since God is all-knowing, I probably wouldn't even have bothered with me in the first place! But thanks be to God that He is not like me. He's not like us! He can see the end from before the beginning. He not only sees all of our past, but He sees us seated in Heaven with Jesus right now. Ephesians 2: 4 - 7 says: 

⁴ But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, ⁵ that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) ⁶ For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. ⁷ So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. (NLT)

This is great news! It means that even though we are physically here on Earth, battling with sin and our enemy, we are spiritually seated with Jesus. Jesus is seated because He is finished. He is done. He overcame sin, death and the grave. When God looks at us, seated with Jesus, He sees us as finished. Done. We have overcome, because we have died and risen with Christ. 

Which is at least one of the reasons that He doesn't give up on us - even while we are holding onto what we think is "life" so tightly.

I don't know why I have always been so afraid to embrace the fire of God. But no matter how much fear I have, there is always something that draws me, urges me to surrender to Him. My spirit man really wants to give everything over, but my flesh has been putting up the fight of the century for a long, long, long time.

Although, when I think about it logically, (yes, it is possible for my brain to handle some logic!) it only makes sense to surrender to God. After all, when He created us, He put certain things and characteristics and gifts and dreams inside us on purpose. He gave them to us for our enjoyment, His pleasure and to be a part of His plan for the world. The only things He wants to take away from us would have to be the bad stuff - the stuff that makes us miserable. We always think if we really give everything to God, He is going to snatch our lives away from us. "I can't surrender my family to God! He'll take them away from me!" Apparently we forget that God is sovereign, and He can take whatever He wants anyways, regardless if we are holding onto it or not!

But He wants us to release the good and the bad into His hands - not so He can take it away, but so we can live freely. I heard someone once talk about the concept of living with open hands. Open hands are not holding onto anything - whether good or bad. Open hands are free to receive, and free to let go. This has stuck with me for years now, and I can't erase it from my memory - because it is truth!

This is how He meant for us to live, and it's the only way to really be free. Lord, help us to live with open hands, in complete surrender to You. Help us to trust in Your love for us and live with complete confidence that You really do only want the best for us. We can trust You with our lives, our families, our careers and our futures!

God is Good - All the Time?

What would you say if someone asked you "Is God good?" The standard response would be to say, "Yes!" But do you really think God is good? Is it something that you believe with all your heart all of the time?

Most of us, if we were to be completely honest with ourselves, would have to say no! We believe the God is good most of the time, but what about the times when nothing is going our way? What about the difficult times, when it seems like He has left us? We know in our minds that He will never leave us or forsake us, (Hebrews 13:5) but do we believe it in our hearts?

It's in these hard times that we start to doubt that God really is good. After all, if God was good, we wouldn't be in this situation right?

Think about this: God is love. That means He cannot be separated from love. So everything He does, every word He says, every action that He takes - He does it all out of love. If we can just grasp this truth and hold onto it tightly, we will never again doubt that God is good and He loves us.

It basically comes down to choice. We choose to believe that God is good. We choose to believe that God loves us. We exercise our will to choose to believe these things, even in the toughest circumstances.

If we can make this choice, and stick by it, going through hard times will be easier because then we can say, "Lord, You are good. You love me. Everything You do, You do out of love. Even when You discipline, You do it because You love me! So knowing this, I will be okay. Knowing that You are good and that You love me, I know that I can trust You no matter what my situation is, because You are good and You love me."

Why Do We Fight Him?

Our whole lives as Christians can be a constant tug of war between our flesh and the Holy Spirit. Some of us live our whole lives without a total surrender to the One who loves us, the One who gave everything He had so that we might have LIFE - and yet we refuse this life, true life, by not giving all of ourselves to Him.

John 10:10 (NLT) "The thief's purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life."

If your hands are already full, how can you accept a gift? Imagine that you are holding onto 2 rotten apples, one in each hand. Then a close friend comes along with 2 ripe apples, nice and red and juicy and crisp - 2 perfect apples. (I am making myself hungry here!) You look at those apples, and you know they are good. You know they would be much better for you than the rotten ones you have in your hands. Your friend desperately wants to give you his apples, but even though you want to do it, you can't accept the perfect apples he is offering you because you are still holding onto the rotten ones. You don't have room in your hands to have all the apples - you have to put down the rotten ones before you can accept the perfect apples.

Ok, I know that using apples is a little different, but I'm pretty sure that you get the picture. I know I do!

We hold on to our pride - we want to be in control of our lives, of our dreams, our goals, our relationships, our decisions, our whole lives. Jesus offers us LIFE, and we look at Him and we know that what He has for us is so much better than what we are holding onto, but we don't let go, so we cannot accept what He is offering us.

The great thing about Jesus is that His patience does not end - because His love for us doesn't end either! As long as we have breath, His offer of LIFE will not expire. Christians, as soon as you let go, you will be free to accept what He has to offer you! A rich and satisfying LIFE!!

We need to let go...learn to live our lives not with a closed fist, but with open hands. Open hands don't hold onto anything in this life; not possessions, not people, not dreams, and not even burdens or offences. Open hands. It gives God full freedom to do what He has always wanted to do in your life - give you LIFE!

Oops!

Just noticed that my last blog post (it was a while ago!) almost matches my new post...I guess God's love must be a pretty important subject! Well, enjoy both of them!

God's Love For You Has Nothing To Do With You!

Did you have to read that title a couple of times? Think about it - God's love for you has absolutely nothing to do with you! Doesn't make much sense, does it? However, when you give it some thought, it really does!

The Bible says that nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love of God. This includes us! Not even we ourselves can separate up from His love. God loves us, no matter what! There is nothing we can do to make Him love us less, and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more. Therefore, His love for you has nothing to do with you!

If you are like me, you have probably struggled with feeling like you've gone too far this time, or that God has extended His mercy too many times, and soon He will take His grace away from you. I don't know why Christians find it easier to believe lies than the truth of God's own Word, but it is usually the case.

If you are struggling with these thoughts of condemnation, read Psalm 106. This Psalm talks about how the Israelites rebelled against God time after time after time after time. It says that they even went as far as to sacrifice their own sons and daughters to idols, shedding innocent blood! Then it talks about how God was angry, and gave them over to their enemies.

HOWEVER! In verses 43-46, it says: "Again and again He rescued them, but they chose to rebel against Him and they were finally destroyed by their sin. Even so, He pitied them in their distress and listened to their cries. He remembered His covenant with them and relented because of His unfailing love. He even caused their captors to treat them with kindness."

Christians! His covenant with YOU is His blood! There is no stronger covenant than this! Nothing can erase what He has already done for you - no, not even your sins! So do not accept condemnation. Instead, repent of your sin, and then move on from it, confident that He who has the final say has already forgotten it.

It Has Nothing to do with You!

The love of God is greater far

Than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell

The guilty pair bowed down with care

God gave His Son to win

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from His sin

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies with parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

would drain the ocean dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Though stretched from sky to sky

O love of God how rich and pure

How measureless and strong

It shall forevermore endure

The saints' and angels' song

The love Jesus has for you has absolutely nothing to do with you. Let me say that again: The love Jesus has for you, has absolutely nothing to do with you. Once you get this into your heart, it is a very freeing statement. There is nothing you could do, say or think that can make Him love you less or more - NOTHING! He loves you because He loves you - it has nothing to do with you. This is what Romans 8 is all about - we are free to live because He loves us, and His love is completely unconditional. This doesn't mean that we should abuse our freedom and sin freely; it means that we can walk in His love, and allow Him to live through us and empower us to overcome.

If I were to ask you how do you think Jesus would act towards you if He were to walk up to you right now, what would your answer be? I asked this to someone recently, and he thought Jesus would be ashamed of him. A lot of people think this. A lot of people think that Jesus would be angry at them or that He would be disappointed in them. If you think this way, how would YOU react? You would probably turn away from Him or hang your head, not looking Him in the eye.

Is this Biblical? How many times in the Bible did Jesus look at His disciples or the crowds in disgust, contempt or shame? (Pharisees not included of course; they seemed to be in another category of people!) The answer is not once. Jesus never looked at anyone with anything but love. Not even the adulteress woman or the Samaritan woman. Not the tax collectors, the thieves He died beside or "doubting Thomas." Nothing but love. And that is how He would react to you today if He were to walk into the room. He would tell you, "lift up your head, look into My eyes and see how much I love you."

Lift up your head. Do not walk around in shame or condemnation. It is impossible to disappoint Him - how can you disappoint someone who already knew what you were going to do? It's impossible! His love is Perfect. Perfect love casts out all fear. Walk in His love - walk freely in His love. He will never give you a reason to hang your head in front of Him - never. His love for you has nothing to do with you!

Where is the Love?

"Love is patient, love is kind.
It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs.
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails."

Love is essential to our human existence. Without it, something inside of us withers up and we feel like a part of us is dead. I'm not talking about romantic love or infatuation; I'm talking about real and lasting love - the unconditional kind! We were made to love and be loved; God created us with to love Him and love each other. Nowadays though, love seems to be vanishing - even in the church, where it should be the number one commodity.

We have begun to act as if love is not important; truth and knowledge are more important! However, Paul says in I Corinthians 13, that you can do all kinds of good works, speak eloquently and have huge faith, but if you do these things without love, they don't count for anything. Love is the most important part of Christianity!

Our primary motivator should always be love. Whatever we do and say to and for others should always come from a heart of love. Everything that Jesus said and did was out of love. Not once did He let anything deter Him from acting in love. He constantly put His love for others before His own needs and wants; even when He was physically eshausted, hungry and needing rest, He still had deep compassion on the crowds following Him and took care of their needs before His.

Technology has taken the place of human interaction these days, and we are talking and seeing each other less and less. This has also made showing love to one another a lot harder. There are millions of unhappy people out there, and you see many of them every day. Look around the next time you are on the bus or subway or waiting in line at the store. Your smile can lift someone's spirits and make a difference in a stranger's life. Another thing you can do to show love to a stranger or someone you know is to simply ask, "how are you?" and really mean it! This question has become a part of conversation, and most people just answer, "fine, how are you?" Let the person know that you really want to know how they are!

Don't love selfishly; instead, use I Corinthian's 13 as your guide. Remember, one day you will stand before God and He will not be judging us according to your actions; He will be looking at the intent of your heart - your motivation for doing those actions.