The Terms of Surrender

What does God have for me?  Is it to be an author, an engineer, or a missionary?  No matter what my calling is, God has a plan for me to achieve great things.  Now these great things may not be great by the world's standards or be heard of by many people, but they will be great in God's eyes.  However, am I working and living towards this greatness or am I becoming contented with where I'm at or where I think I'm going?

After examining myself I find myself far too content with where I think I'm going.  I have surrendered my life to God but am only letting Him work through my plans and ambitions.  Now I am trying to re-orient my plans and ambitions to be in alignment with God's, but that's not good enough.  That's not what God calls us to.  I am to surrender my whole being to His will and His path for my life.  As I was confronted with this realization at church, God asked me a single irrefutable question, "Will you surrender all?"  This came in the words of a song.

You won't relent until you have it all,
My heart is yours.
You won't relent until you have it all,
My heart is yours.

Come be the fire inside of me,
Come be the flame upon my heart.
Come be the fire inside of me,
Until You and I are one

Will I lose my possessions for Him?  Will I lose my comfortable middle class life for Him?  Will I lose my health for Him?  Will I lose my own purpose for Him?  Will I even give up my life for Him(or harder yet, give my life up to Him)?  If the answer to all of those is not yes, then I may as well turn away now.  This is the question hH put before me and the decision I was faced with.  These are His Terms of Surrender, Unconditional Surrender.  This simple release of what I hold as my own and letting Him become my everything.  Not an easy task and not something I took lightly.  For a while I struggled within myself as to whether or not I could let go of those things I held so dear.  My desire to be an author, my desire to have a family, and even my desire to live comfortably.  I had to let go, turn away, or hold on to them and still attempt to follow God.

Before I even made up my mind, my God had made it up for me in the first line of the song, "You won't relent until you have it all."  Even as I warred within myself He gave me a peace that, even though I knew I couldn't give up everything in my own strength, He would help lay myself down every step of the way and that the great I Am will never leave me alone.  For I Am never alone.


Agreeing to Unconditional Surrender,
Joshua

The Stand

As I look at the world around me I see something that hasn't changed no matter the geography, political climate, or religious background, I see hate.  And that is really getting me down right now.  I guess that's one of the things about me that I am at the same time thankful and occasionally resentful about, the ability to feel what's around me.  Going from a place where those around me were centered on Christ to a place where everyone should be centered on God but seem to have a slightly different center has been a bit disconcerting to say the least.  And right now I am feeling that along with the hate around me and it's putting me off center. It's taking me away from my God who needs to be my all in all and that is what's getting me down.  Yet whenever something like this happens God has a way of sending me a message, a simple piece of piano music, an encouragement from a friend, or a whisper in the wind that says, "I'm still here and, no matter what those around you do or are, I Am Love and I Am with you."

The simple truth I am broken and still I am loved is the only thing that gives me the strength to go on some days.  Today is one of those days, and how awesome is my God who, though he doesn't have to, pours that love on me when I least deserve it.  My answer to the hate around me is that to God there is a right and a wrong, yet above it all God cares for and loves every person.  Ignore either of them and you end up with someone who's less than God, but take them together and you have a call to be different when so many people are choosing the easy way.

Taking a stand isn't changing one thing and ignoring the rest, it is leaving yourself behind and letting God pull you up to him out of your brokenness and blindness to his healing and love.  Time to stand amid hate and self-centeredness and heal the broken and downtrodden.



Taking The Stand,
Joshua