Tag: Surrender

Pursuing the Treasure of Immeasurable Worth – Heaven

Matthew 13:44
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Every period in history has been marked by people who set out in expectation of finding hidden treasures. All of these treasure hunters have had the same goal. They sought to become suddenly rich. They also shared something else. Their passion to become rich drove them to give up all that they had in order to pursue their treasure.

Like these treasure hunters of times gone by, we would do well to find a passion for seeking the treasure that is the kingdom of heaven. We should be willing to give up all that we have in order to pursue this treasure of unmeasurable worth. Our efforts to attain this treasure must be the most important thing in our lives. We cannot be undecided or unsure about what we are seeking. We will only find the kingdom of heaven if we are desperate and passionate to receive it.

When we recognize Jesus Christ as the Pearl of Great Price, all other things should become worthless to us. As we recognize what Jesus Christ gave up for us, should we not be willing to give up everything for Him? In truth, there is no valuable consideration that can be given up for Him. It is our willingness to part with our sinful nature that provides all the honors, riches and profits of the kingdom of heaven.

Let us surrender all that we are and all that we have to Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let us exchange all of the treasures of this world for the immeasurable treasures of the kingdom of God. May we let our passion for Jesus be the foundation of our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the great treasure that You have set aside for us in heaven. We exalt the name of Jesus Christ, the Pearl of Great Price, who has made it possible for us to live for all eternity in Your kingdom. We pray that Your Holy Spirit will guide us to experience the fullness of Your kingdom here on earth. May the blessings and the lessons that Your Holy Spirit brings to us for our joy and our enlightenment help us to find our passion for Jesus Christ. May we live our lives entirely for the honor and glory of You, Father, Your Son and Your Holy Spirit. We ask all these things in the name of the Treasure of all treasures, Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Fulcrum in Helping Us to Successfully Balance Our Lives

Luke 7:30
But the Pharisees and experts in religious law rejected God’s plan for them, for they had refused John’s baptism.

God’s plan for our lives calls for total surrender to Him. The enemy has a different plan. The Pharisees suffered under the hand of Satan as they rejected God’s plans in order to follow their own plans which they were deceived into believing were built upon many good things.

The enemy uses all the facets of our lives on earth as areas of distraction in order to keep us from full surrender to Our Lord. Our work, recreation, hobbies and even family activities can all be big areas of distraction for us. Ironically, the work that we do as a ministry to support the Body of Christ may also become a distraction that keeps us from digging deep into our relationship with Jesus Christ. All of these activities can certainly be deemed good in their own right and are likely extremely productive. That is why Satan is so successful in distracting us from God. Satan entices us to replace God with good things.

Like the Pharisees, as we pursue all these good things in our lives, we may miss out on the special things that God has set aside for us. Oneness with Jesus Christ is the only way for us to successfully balance all that we deal with in life. Jesus is the fulcrum. He balances our load by providing the right foundation for all that we do. When we stay in balance by following the urgings of the Holy Spirit, we can reside in a place of rest and satisfaction unlike anything that we can derive from our own plans.

Let us strive to make Jesus the foundation for everything in our lives. Let us seek to make Jesus Christ the center of all we do. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us to differentiate the good opportunities in our lives from the God opportunities awaiting us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for using us to carry out Your plans for us and those around us. We pray, Lord, that You will draw us into full surrender to Your Son. May we make Him the center of everything in our lives. We ask that the Holy Spirit will help us to discover the unique plans that You have for our lives. We ask all these things in the name of the One from whom all good things come, Jesus Christ.

How the Process of Obedience and Surrender Builds Our Relationship with Christ

Luke 18:22
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

The young ruler, as he is often called, was given the directive to sell what He had and follow Jesus. It was a hard word for the young man to take. He walked away from all that Jesus had offered because he could not give up his earthly treasures in exchange for the treasures that Jesus offered to him.

For most all of us, God’s words do not come to us in such a direct manner as the words spoken to the young man. They do not come in clear audible context. God’s directives come to us in the faint internal whisperings of the Holy Spirit. We receive more of a gentle urging of the spirit rather than an anything audible. Nonetheless, we are challenged just like the young ruler to decide if God is the most important thing in our lives.

Maybe, unlike the young ruler, it is not our treasures that we are holding on to. Maybe we are holding on to a job that keeps us away from our family. Maybe we are holding on to an outside interest that keeps us out of church on Sunday. Maybe we are holding on to a habit that limits our ability to draw closer to God. Maybe it is simply pride that is keeping us from fully surrendering to Our Savior.

Whatever it is, it is clear to Our Lord what we are holding on to. In His loving kindness, He will insure that which we are clinging to is exposed. The Holy Spirit will reveal the things of the flesh that we are clinging to. The Holy Spirit will send us urgings that are designed to test our obedience. If we ignore the urgings, they will become weaker and weaker until they eventually cease. If we are obedient to the urgings, they will become clearer and clearer to us. God’s inspiration will become a greater part of our lives as we begin to seek the urgings of the Holy Spirit in all of our endeavors. Through the process of obedience and surrender, we will learn to walk in the fullness of Jesus Christ.

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to us the things that we are placing above God in our lives. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to show us any areas of lack in our spiritual walk with Christ. Let us submit to the urgings of the Holy Spirit so that we may live the abundant life that God has planned for us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for drawing us to Yourself through the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit. We praise You for providing the ever present Counselor in our daily lives. We pray that our minds and hearts will be receptive to all that the Holy Spirit brings to us. We ask for the strength to release the trappings of our flesh that are keeping us from surrendering fully to Your Son. May our obedience bring richness to our daily walk with Our Savior. We ask all these things in the name of Our Treasure on earth and in heaven, Jesus Christ.

Surrendering to the Finishing Work of the Holy Spirit

Hebrews 12:5
My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

Once we accept Jesus Christ as Our Savior, the Lord begins His work in us. He promises that He will complete every good work in us. He also promises that He will discipline us as needed to get us to the way, the truth and the life that is in Him. He will leave no blemish untouched.

As the Lord works on us, we can think of ourselves as a piece of old furniture that needs refinishing. Our old stain is no longer acceptable at the place where we will be displayed. We need a new refined finish. Our new finish cannot be applied until all of the old stain is removed. The first part of our refinishing will be relatively easy as our old stain is stripped away. This first step, however, will reveal the depth of the old stain. This then leads to the tough part of the process. To get rid of the stubborn stain will require sanding, scraping, chipping and maybe even gouging. This tedious process will be repeated over and over until all the old stain is completely gone. Only when all the stain has been removed completely will our final finish be applied.

God has various ways of completing His finishing work in our lives. Sometimes it is by the gentle urgings of the Holy Spirit, sometimes it is by our reading of His Word and sometimes it is by the spoken words of His ministers. Often He allows affliction and trials to bring us to acknowledge and confess our iniquities, to recognize our shortcomings in fulfilling our duties or to convince us of our folly in following our own nature. All of these things are done through His perfect love and forgiveness.

Let us humbly surrender to the finishing work of the Holy Spirit. Let us submit to the work of the Master, who is preparing us for a place in His house.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing us to join You for all eternity. We bless the name of Jesus for His precious blood that He shed so that we may be washed clean of every stain of sin in our lives. We bow before You, Father, in full surrender to Your good work in us. We pray that You take us into Your hands and prepare us to stand before You in the image of Your Son. We rejoice in knowing that we will be in service to You in Your house forever. We ask all these things in the name of Our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ.

Becoming Totally Reliant on God

2 Kings 2:12
And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Elisha had been forewarned that his master, Elijah, was going to be taken from him. Elijah asked Elisha what he wanted from him before he was taken away. Elisha asked for a double portion of the anointing that the Lord had placed on Elijah. Elijah said that this was a huge request, but if Elisha witnessed his master being taken away by the Lord then his request was granted.

Having gone through his final lessons from Elijah, Elisha saw Elijah taken away. Elisha now stood alone. In a show of extreme grief of having lost his master, he tore his clothes in two pieces. He knew that he would no longer have his guide and leader to rely on. But because he had asked for it, he was granted a double portion of the anointing that was held by Elijah. Elisha would now rely on God, not on his master.

As Almighty God prepares us to spend eternity with Him, He may allow the people around us who we have relied upon to be taken from us. It may be through death or through a broken relationship, but they will be removed in some manner. Our Lord may also allow our finances or our possessions that we hold dear to be taken from us. During these times, we must learn to rely on the Lord and not on the world around us. Until we come to the point that we are totally reliant on God, He is likely to continue to allow the removal of people and things from our lives until we totally surrender to His reign in our lives. Through it all, we will learn the comfort, the power and the strength of resting in the hands of the One that created us.

Let us turn to the Lord for the peace and the strength that only He can provide when a person, place or thing has been taken from us. Let us find our new direction under the guidance of the Holy Spirit as we struggle with our change. Let us boldly ask the Lord to replace what we have lost with a double portion of His blessing on our lives.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for allowing us to rest in the comfort of Your hands as we go through our journey of surrendering completely to You. We praise You for Your loving kindness and Your mercy as You never forsake us as we struggle to find our way. We pray, Lord, that You will open our eyes so that we may begin to see all that You have prepared for us. We beseech You, Father, to grant us the fullness of the power and strength that You have set aside for us. We ask all these things in the name of Our Ever Present Lord, Jesus Christ.

God Uses the Obedient Ones to Serve Him in Unimaginable Ways

Judges 3:31
After him was Shamgar the son of Anath, who killed 600 of the Philistines with an oxgoad, and he also saved Israel.

For most of us, Shamgar is another one of the Bible characters that goes by mostly unnoticed. It is so easy to breeze right by Shamgar when reading in Judges. Today’s passage and one brief mention in Judges 6 contain all that the Bible reveals about Shamgar. But God’s inerrant Word wastes nothing. Every person mentioned in the Holy Scripture is worthy of study. So it is with Shamgar.

Shamgar was in a line of judges who served Israel. Some of the judges were disobedient to God, bringing defeat and misery upon the Israelites. Some of the judges were obedient to God, bringing victory and peace upon the Israelites. Shamgar was an obedient judge. We know that because he saved Israel from their enemies.

We can surmise a few things about Shamgar that should be inspiring to us. He was probably a simple man, a farmer (as implied by his use of the oxgoad as his weapon). Because he was obedient to God, he was given the supernatural power to slay the Philistines using his cattle prod.

God used Shamgar to save the nation of Israel from the Philistines. God is not limited by our abilities nor our resources. He delights in using the obedient to orchestrate His will on earth. He is waiting to use us.

Let us surrender all that we are and all that we have to Almighty God. Let us come to serve Him in ways that we cannot even imagine.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing to us in Your Holy Word how You use your obedient children to carry out Your plans on this earth. We rejoice in knowing that You will release Your supernatural power through anyone of us as we surrender to Your calling on our lives. We exalt the name of Jesus who has made us worthy to serve You. We pray, Father, that Your Holy Spirit will inspire us to join You in Your work on earth. We pray that You will provide the grace and strength that we need to gain the victory that You have set aside for us. We ask all these things in the name of Our Omnipotent King, Jesus Christ.

Humble Yourself Before Jesus and Open the Way to His Perfecting Work in You

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

At times, we all experience things in our lives that make us feel like we are not strong enough to overcome. At times, we all are tempted in such a way that it feels like we are near faltering. Rejoice!! We are in the perfect position to have Jesus provide all that we need for victory. He is just waiting for us to recognize our weakness and call on Him to draw on His resources.

The apostle Paul was told by Jesus that Jesus’ strength was sufficient for all of Paul’s needs. Jesus emphasized to Paul that His power was made perfect in Paul’s weakness. Paul recognized this truth and leaned upon it through all of his trials. He became the most prolific writer in the bible and led the way of evangelizing the gentile world to Christianity.

When we come to recognize that there is nothing in us that is worthy without Jesus Christ, we open the way for His perfecting work in our lives. When we humble ourselves before Our Savior, we build on our relationship with the One who seeks to perfect us. Through it all, in spite of our weaknesses, the evidence of His presence in our lives becomes visible for all to see. We must be ever mindful that it is not about the work that we do for ourselves. It is about the relationship we have with Jesus that releases victory in our lives.

Let us surrender to Our Savior King. Let us present our weaknesses to Him so that He may perfect His strengths in our lives. Let us become living testimonies to His power.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace that You pour into our lives through Your Son, Jesus. We seek the power of Your grace in our lives. We ask forgiveness for the times that we by-passed Your grace in order to operate out of our own perceived strength. We pray that Holy Spirit will aid us in leaning on You for all of our needs and guiding us in all that we do. May Your strength be perfected in our weakness. We ask all these things in the name of the Strength of the Needy, Jesus Christ.

Almighty God Takes Us Through a Process to Prepare Us for a Place at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb

Revelation 21:2
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Most of us were taught to set goals and to develop step-by-step plans to reach our goals, so that the end of our lives will be joyful and satisfying. For many of us, attaining the goals that we set for ourselves has become the driving force that directs the course of our lives. Thus are the ways of man.

In God’s supernatural world, things are totally different. Goals are not set for this world, because God did not create this world to be about our accomplishments. God created this world to prepare us for the eternal life that we will spend in heaven for all eternity. Everything we go through here on earth is part of the process that God puts us through or allows us to go through in order to prepare us for life in new Jerusalem.

We go up to new Jerusalem, not to fulfill our own purposes, but to fulfill the purposes that Almighty God has for us. We are being prepared to go to a place where all things are new. There will be no trouble or tumult. The new Jerusalem is the church of God in its new and perfect state. It is a holy church without blemish and we will be there fully prepared for our place at the wedding feast of the Lamb.

Let us prepare ourselves for our new lives in the kingdom of God. Let us surrender to the work that the Holy Spirit is doing in our lives. Let us repent of the things that the Holy Spirit reveals to us. Let us be obedient to the things that the Holy Spirit urges us to do. Let us rejoice in our new lives in Jesus Christ.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for preparing a place for us at the wedding feast of the Lamb. We praise You and worship You for providing a way for us to be made acceptable to take our place at this great banquet. Father, open our eyes that we may see Your perspective of what our lives are meant to be. We pray that you show us how to set aside all that this world offers in exchange for the eternal life that we will spend with You for all eternity. We ask all these things in the name of the True Bread of Heaven, Jesus Christ.

Choosing a Supernatural Path When Troubles Arise

2 Corinthians 4:7
But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

Whenever the trials arise in our lives, the natural response is for us to focus on the problems or the pain they cause. In doing so, we are taken down a path of looking to our own capabilities to resolve the difficulties of our circumstances. In many cases, we are woefully incapable of handling or resolving our issues alone. Often times our efforts even make matters worse.

As children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ, we have an alternative available to us which is completely different and produces dramatically different results. When we choose to respond in our spirit instead of in our flesh, we focus on the solution, Jesus Christ, instead of our problems. We avail ourselves to a supernatural solution. We avail ourselves to the power and grace of the One who sees the beginning and the end as we surrender ourselves to His will and plan for our lives.

When we recognize that the success that we have is due to the excellency and power of Almighty God, we bring honor and praise to His throne. When others see us testify that our success is not due to our natural abilities, our diligence or the aid that we receive from others, but from the hand of the One who created us, they are drawn to the treasure that we hold within us. And ultimately, we not only bring honor and glory to Almighty God but we also become vessels of His treasures.

Let us seek the supernatural power of Jesus Christ when our troubles arise. Let us turn away from our tendency to solve our troubles through our own capabilities and the capabilities of others around us. Let us honor the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by the choosing the supernatural path versus the natural path.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the will and plan that You have for our lives. We rejoice in knowing that You delight in using Your power to work out all of the things in our lives that trouble us. We praise You for using each of our trials to shape us into the unique individuals that You created each of us to be. May all the honor and glory be Yours, Father, as we turn to Your Son for all of our needs. We pray that the world around us will be drawn to Your Son, Jesus, as we testify to the power and excellency of His presence in our lives. We ask all these things in the name of Our Strength and Our Power, Jesus Christ.

God Took the Management of Our Hearts Out of Our Own Hands

Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Human rationalization leads us to believe that everyone at some level has a good heart. God’s Holy Word emphasizes that the opposite is true. The human heart is corrupt. Without Jesus Christ, the human heart is in fact deceitful above all things. Is it no wonder that in today’s news that we see evil called good and good called evil?

As a society, we have pushed God and His Son out of the picture. Collectively, we have placed our confidence in ourselves and others. The result has been in accordance with God’s Word. We now find ourselves in a culture that is desperately wicked. We see leaders that are delusional. We live among a people who mock the name of Jesus and persecute those that follow Him and choose to live by His standards.

How could all this happen? Does God not know how incapable we are to manage our own hearts? Of course He does. That is why He gave us His Son, Jesus, to be Our Savior. That is why He took the management of our hearts out of our own wretched hands and placed it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who was instructed to open our minds and hearts to see the way, the truth and the life that is Jesus.

Let us seek the Holy Spirit to help prepare our hearts to receive Jesus as Our Savior. Let ask the Holy Spirit to mold our hearts to surrender to Jesus as Our Lord, Our Master and Our King.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, we thank You for revealing the wickedness in our hearts. We thank You for providing Your Son, Jesus, so that we have a way to overcome our desire to be the rulers over our own hearts. We praise You for giving us the Holy Spirit to inspire us to turn our hearts over to Jesus. We pray that the lost around us may know the true nature of their hearts as they see the difference that Jesus Christ has made in our hearts. We ask all these things in the name of the Refiner and Purifier of our hearts, Jesus Christ.