Defeated or Surrendered?

If you know me very well you know that I question authority! One of the things that especially irritates me are rules that lack any real reason other than “because I said so.”  Yes, the law exists for public order and I am glad for it but I despise regulations that appear to exist solely to justify the job of some regulator.  Despite my inclination to independence, I try to surrender myelf to obedience because it is generally the right thing to do, for God’s sake. The Word tells me to be a good citizen and to honor the law.   

Of much more significance is the challenge of surrender to the will of God!  He asks me to love the unlovely, to forgive without holding back, to serve even when unnoticed, to say “no” to temptation and “yes” to His ways. I know full well the experience described by Paul in Romans 7:  “The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.”

Maturity has taught me that my surrender to the will of another is not a sign of defeat or weakness.
It is a mark of strength to choose humility. 

When I say “yes” to the Spirit’s call to love the unlovely, to care for the broken, to take up the cause of those who are without the ability to defend themselves, setting aside my pride and my way, I am living like Jesus did!  Paul, prior to meeting Jesus, was a proud Pharisee, a man much concerned about his reputation. But, in his encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus, he surrendered! 

He recognized Jesus as his Lord, a word of submission. His embrace of submission to Jesus was personally costly in terms of his stature among his fellow Pharisees. Jews following his conversion.  Later in his life, even many of those with whom he shared the Gospel treated him poorly.  But, he surrendered - choosing to allow himself to be accused, attacked, and rejected.  Why?  He answers with these words - "If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness." (2 Corinthians 11:30, NIV)

Christian we are called to be like Jesus, willing to forget Self and embrace surrender! He gave away His divine rights and stood alongside of us who were sinners. "You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being." (Philippians 2:5-7, NLT)  He went further!  He submitted Himself, in the will of God, to the ignominy of crucifixion.  Stripped of respect as well as His clothes, He hung naked on a cross, identified with the outcasts, reviled by the respected.  On the Cross, He became the Bridge of God’s grace to sinful humanity.

Do you want to love like Jesus? Do you want to be a person through whom He is able to show His love? The only way is the surrender of self willl to God’s will. He asks that we “turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it." (Luke 9:23-24, NLT)  The wonder of all this is that when we have left behind our love of Self, making what we treasure here on this earth secondary to His call, only then do we find the treasure that is most precious.  We cannot possess the latter until we have let go of the former.

Here’s the word from the Word shows the reward of surrender. Because of His submission, "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining." (Philippians 2:9-14, NIV)

This Monday morning the key question for your prayerful meditation  is this - is there something I need to surrender to Jesus that I might fully live in the Spirit?

____________

(Video of this blog at this link)

Heavenly Father, help me to live in obedience,
Filled with faith,
So that Your blessings can flow through me
To this world.
May my thoughts, words, and actions
Cause others to turn to You and
Give You praise.
In Jesus’ holy Name, I pray.

Amen