I am in COMPLETE AWE of how God works in our lives. The WORK of SURRENDER I did this morning was work that I thought I already did. It was DEEP rooted. DEEP. As I've been writing these blog posts...I tend to look forward to the next day and what the topic will be & I didn't yesterday.
Let me tell you somethin'! If you ASK the Good Lord to ENTER into your life...If you ASK Him to SHINE LIGHT on situations... If you ASK him to BLESS you...HE WILL DO IT....and you better be ready. I can't really explain it. Let me just tell you that he is REVEALING MORE to me the second time around with this book, than he did the first time. He is not only telling me now....He is MOVING me. He is MAKING me move. I mean it when I say this book is LIFE-CHANGING.
The first line in this chapter: "The heart of worship is surrender." Most of us look at a word like surrender as weakness. I feel like society as a whole goes through a kabillions (prob not a word) of BAND-AIDS to cover up the hurt and the weaknesses that we DON'T WANT TO SURRENDER. I am telling you now...there is SOMETHING (& maybe several things) you have to SURRENDER to God to get closer to Him & break the devil's hold on your life...AND that something or THINGS you probably don't want to touch, or think about, or don't want to let back in. You WANT to sweep them under the rug. ASK GOD to clean you out & take the devil's hold off of you. He will do it in a loving way & he will place the right people in you life to HELP you do it. Be prepared for potential exhaustion. Be prepared for a LIFT in SPIRIT.
He spoke a stripped down, raw & honest TRUTH to me last night & this morning he took the BURDEN I had been carrying (that I thought I had released) from me. Just like that. He just took the devil's hold & BROKE it. BROKE IT! It is GONE. He revealed a hold on me I didn't KNOW was there, made me aware, made me affirm it, & has blessed me.
As you go through this chapter & you learn about Paul & you read the words he preached to people & how he URGED them to surrender, The Spirit will start to stir. He didn't go into great detail. He just asks us to do it. The first time I read this book I didn't "GET IT." I am intrigued by Paul. I got the importance. I got the NEED to do it, but I didn't understand it at the level I NEEDED to understand it. Paul experienced God's GRACE & SUPREME VISION regularly, BUT you can't really EXPLAIN that to people in a way they will understand. What I "GET" now is: You have to have FAITH. If you have faith...INVITE GOD IN. If you invite God in he will SHOW you. He will HELP you SURRENDER & then he will cause you to continually SURRENDER. Doing work on you gives GLORY to God & SAVES you.
Warren writes: "There are three barriers that block our total surrender to God: fear, pride, and confusion."
5 areas to FOCUS on today:
1) "Can I trust God?" Pastor Warren sums this up: "You won't surrender to God unless you trust him, but you can't trust him until you know him better....The more you realize how much God loves you the easier surrender becomes." I had a conversation with someone once about how to find Jesus in some of the REALLY difficult moments: a painful disease, a rape, a beating. How do people find TRUST in God in experiences like that? We are all born with The Spirit inside us. EVEN IF YOU ARE MAD AT GOD...ASK Him to show you where he was & He will. He WILL NOT give us ANYTHING we can't handle & his PLAN for you transcends that pain.
2) "Admitting our limitations." "We don't want to admit that we're just creatures and not in charge of everything...That desire - to have complete control - is the cause of so much stress in our lives." Well put Pastor Rick! Yeah...I was wound up in all of that like a lot of others...still am in some areas. I believe now....that he wants to take care of the HARD & icky stuff. RELEASE it to him. Don't get me wrong. We have to DO WORK, but we don't need to CREATE unnecessary work.
3) "What it means to surrender." This one gets deep. EVERYONE needs to read it. I'll try and keep it short. Pastor Rick's words: "Surrendering to God is not passive resignation, fatalism, or an excuse for laziness. It is not accepting the status quo. It may mean the exact opposite: sacrificing your life or suffering in order to change what needs to be changed. God often calls surrendered people to do battle on his behalf. Surrendering is not for cowards or doormats." AMEN! It ain't easy folks & it ain't for sissies & you will NEED God's GRACE to keep you moving. The Bible says, "Surrender yourself to the Lord, and wait patiently for him." I KNOW I've begun this process. There is work I have to do & he is STRIPPING my EGO away from it. It is NOT ABOUT ME. It is about doing HIS work.
One more thing from the book that spoke to me was when Pastor Warren discussed the most difficult area of surrender, which is this thought: "'I want to live for God but I also want to earn enough money to live comfortably and retire someday.'" If you are SURRENDERING...NOTHING competes with God. This was TOUGH for me, but I have AMAZING FAITH that He will PROVIDE everything I need & WHEN we need it & I know that all of our solutions are right in front of us...it's just like putting a puzzle together.
4) "The blessing of surrender." Here is what you will experience: PEACE...(Don't we all want some peace.) Then...FREEDOM. He's talkin' freedom from the binding ties the devil & his army uses. Lastly, "you experience God's power in your life." & yes you do. "Surrendered people are the one's God uses." Examples would be: Mother Mary, Paul, Joseph, Noah, Joshua....
5) "The best way to live." How we live, what we do, what we allow, how we react...is ALL our responsibility. We have to OWN that & stop BLAMING everyone else. In this section we are URGED to give it ALL to The Holy Trinity. We have to PRACTICE this because we will have to continually surrender & sometimes it will be easier than others. Paul said: "I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infused inner strength into me, that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency."
Today's "Point to Ponder: The heart of worship is surrender."
Daily Verse: "Surrender yoru whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. " Romans 6:13B (TEV)
Daily Question: "What area of my life am I holding back from God?"
From my journal: I'm trying to control it and fix it and fix people and fix myself and get better and do better and make more money. I will give it all to him and even talk to Kyle (my husband) about it too. I know this will be hard and will have to be done over and over again, but I will!
Buck Up Baby & RIDE with Jesus! Nope...won't be easy, BUT will be worth it! God Bless!!
So beautiful Heather! I know exactly what you mean about being at peace and freedom!
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