We have seen how God Expects our surrender. How He Accomplishes our surrender. Then Accepts our surrender, and doesn't leave us there, but is the one who Maintains our surrender, and lastly He Blesses our surrender. And this absolute surrender to God will wonderfully bless our lives!
We saw in our first study on surrender that King Ahab, said to King Ben- hadad, “My Lord, O King, according to thy word I am thine, and all that I have.” Should we offer anything less to our Lord and Savior, who is not only our creator, but also our redeemer? And if we are willing, and do say this to Jesus and our loving Father, we can be assured that all the blessings of heaven are ours!
We have the perfect example in Jesus who was in this world for thirty- three and a half years and yet was never of this world. God ask us to be separate from the world. The Holy Spirit has been reminding me again and again as I write this, that this separation is much more than just keeping the Sabbath, not eating certain meats and claiming to be God’s people as the Israelites did. Instead our prayer should be, “Lord, anything for You.” If we with honest hearts speak that into God's ear, He will accept it, and He will teach us what that really means.
God will bless us! We have been praying for a blessing, but our part in receiving this all important blessing, as small as our part might be, is absolute surrender. It is a small thing that only we can do, and God cannot, and will not force it on us. Just as important, He cannot lead us forward in our walk without it.
If you sit down to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with your family, on this day your best china, silverware, and goblets are on the table. In these goblets is poured juice. Now why is juice poured into these goblets? Because they are empty, and totally given up for the juice. But if you were to put ink, or oil, or vinegar into the goblet, could you fill it with juice? And can God fill us and bless us if we are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He can't!
Friends, we must truly believe that when we surrender completely to Jesus, He will fill our lives with wonderful blessings beyond what we can even imagine. If we can stand up for Jesus and say, “Lord my will is trembling, but I believe in you.” Andrew Murray said it this way,
“O God, I accept Thy demands. I am Thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace.”
We may not feel that our desires are pure, and our trust is strong, but if we humble ourselves before God and admit that we have grieved the Holy Spirit with self-will, our self-confidence and self-effort, and if we can bow before Him, and ask Him to break our hearts and if need be to roll us in the dust before Him. When we can do that, when we can accept that there is nothing good in us, that what we must have is a new life in Jesus. When we can deny self once and for all, and denying self becomes the power of our lives, then Jesus will come and take possession of our lives. When that happens our church will be a force in our community, and we will be a blessing in our families, unlike anything we have seen before. I look forward to that day! And it is coming!
Next week I would like to spend a little more time looking at how God blesses our surrender.
I love you! Brad
We saw in our first study on surrender that King Ahab, said to King Ben- hadad, “My Lord, O King, according to thy word I am thine, and all that I have.” Should we offer anything less to our Lord and Savior, who is not only our creator, but also our redeemer? And if we are willing, and do say this to Jesus and our loving Father, we can be assured that all the blessings of heaven are ours!
We have the perfect example in Jesus who was in this world for thirty- three and a half years and yet was never of this world. God ask us to be separate from the world. The Holy Spirit has been reminding me again and again as I write this, that this separation is much more than just keeping the Sabbath, not eating certain meats and claiming to be God’s people as the Israelites did. Instead our prayer should be, “Lord, anything for You.” If we with honest hearts speak that into God's ear, He will accept it, and He will teach us what that really means.
God will bless us! We have been praying for a blessing, but our part in receiving this all important blessing, as small as our part might be, is absolute surrender. It is a small thing that only we can do, and God cannot, and will not force it on us. Just as important, He cannot lead us forward in our walk without it.
If you sit down to a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with your family, on this day your best china, silverware, and goblets are on the table. In these goblets is poured juice. Now why is juice poured into these goblets? Because they are empty, and totally given up for the juice. But if you were to put ink, or oil, or vinegar into the goblet, could you fill it with juice? And can God fill us and bless us if we are not absolutely surrendered to Him? He can't!
Friends, we must truly believe that when we surrender completely to Jesus, He will fill our lives with wonderful blessings beyond what we can even imagine. If we can stand up for Jesus and say, “Lord my will is trembling, but I believe in you.” Andrew Murray said it this way,
“O God, I accept Thy demands. I am Thine and all that I have. Absolute surrender is what my soul yields to Thee by divine grace.”
We may not feel that our desires are pure, and our trust is strong, but if we humble ourselves before God and admit that we have grieved the Holy Spirit with self-will, our self-confidence and self-effort, and if we can bow before Him, and ask Him to break our hearts and if need be to roll us in the dust before Him. When we can do that, when we can accept that there is nothing good in us, that what we must have is a new life in Jesus. When we can deny self once and for all, and denying self becomes the power of our lives, then Jesus will come and take possession of our lives. When that happens our church will be a force in our community, and we will be a blessing in our families, unlike anything we have seen before. I look forward to that day! And it is coming!
Next week I would like to spend a little more time looking at how God blesses our surrender.
I love you! Brad
RSS Feed