Bethatasitmay

Have you guys heard the new Cornerstone album from Hillsong? It’s amazing. There’s a song on it called “I Surrender” and it gave me an idea for today.

When’s the last time you surrendered to Jesus? Completely and totally. Not bits and pieces.

We say, “Jesus, I give my life to You! with the exception of my dating relationship- I’m still going to do those things” or “I know you say don’t date an unbeliever, but it doesn’t really matter.” “Jesus! I surrender my all to You!- Except the way I act around my unsaved friends. I have to act this way so I can hang out with them.” “JESUS! I GIVE YOU EVERYTHING I AM AND ALL THAT I HAVE!- Except my finances. I have bills to pay and things to buy. I have to survive, Jesus.”

Often times, it’s against the very person we are to surrender. We want to do things our way so that we can stay in control and maintain it and if things go wrong, we’ll have a plan B. But Jesus didn’t call us to live in such away.

In Matthew 4:18-22, Jesus calls out to some people, and says ‘Follow me, I’ll make you fishers of man.’ and it says (in the Message version), Simon (Peter) and Andrew “didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.” And then James and John, “were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.”

Jesus called from the grind, from the lives we were once living to follow him. At this point, the new disciples just left their work, their father even! They didn’t look back, they didn’t try to finish up what they were doing, they just followed Him.

A lot of times as Christians, we do the opposite. We say, “Hold on Jesus, let me make sure I have a steady job and then I’ll give into your house.” “Wait, wait, God, let me make sure that my family is going to do okay without me when I’m out at church serving You.” “Jesus, hold the phone, I have to make sure that in case this thing doesn’t work out with you, my boat, my work and usual way of life doesn’t float away. Actually, let me just finish up with these fish, we can throw ‘em on the grill and talk this whole ‘follow me’ stuff over.”

Jesus never asked you to do any of that stuff. He said, “Follow me.” The generous God that He is, the loving, kind, compassionate, completely incredible God that you serve who has brought you this far in life, don’t you think that He’ll continue to? Don’t you KNOW that He WILL? I use this scripture a lot and it’s a bit long, but it’s definitely one of my favorites.

“If you decide for God, living a life of God-worship, it follows that you don’t fuss about what’s on the table at mealtimes or whether the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the birds, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, careless in the care of God. And you count far more to him than birds. Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the appearance of wildflowers—most of which are never even seen—don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you? What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.”
 -Matthew 6:25-34

When you surrender all, God makes sure to take care of you. Honestly, when you don’t, you miss out on a lot more. Because you haven’t given Jesus certain parts of your life, you can’t ever truly know what’s it’s like to have the best in that area. You can think it’s rad, but think about what would happen if you gave it to God, Your Father who seriously just wants the best for you- how much more would he give you? So much more.

It’s hard. But it’s possible. And it’s so worth it. It’s a daily thing because we forget and we slowly take back what we’ve given Jesus. It’s a daily surrender. When’s the last time you really, honestly, wholly and completely surrendered everything to God? Watch your life take a turn for the best when you do.