Surrender Is Not Defeat

“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it,

but whoever loses his life for me

and for the gospel will save it.”

Mark 8:35 NIV

For me, surrender is often one of the hardest things for me to do in my Christian walk. Every fiber of my being wants to buy into the messages of the world. Messages that tell me I am in charge of my life, if its to be – it’s up to me, and I deserve to have all I want no matter the cost. At times I so want to “save my life” for my good pleasure, my desires, and my purposes. I want to believe that it is my goals that God should honor. I want to believe that my choices are to be mine and mine alone. I want to write the plan for my life and then wait for God to bring those plans to fruition. To me, surrender at times feels like I am giving up or loosing control. It often feels like failure, and defeat. Who wants to go there? There is no wonder that Jesus issued this warning, “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” Mark 8:35 NIV

 

God often reminds me that he is the one who made me. He made me just as he wanted me to be. I was created with talents, flaws, and special needs. It is important for me to believe that God has no plan to change me into anyone other than the person he created me to be. I simply must trust him with my life. I must believe that he has greater plans for me than I can ever imagine. He wants only that which is good for me. Isn’t that how we all feel about the ones we love? I must not fear his plan for my life but I must surrender to that plan. Why? Because he loves me!

 

I find it amazing that God is able to take my gifts and talents and use them to the max! But the sad truth is that when I take charge of my gifts and talents and try to determine the outcome of their use and purpose, I interfere with his perfect plan for me. My plan may be good but it will never be the best until it is surrendered to God. This is not defeat but it is trusting God to use me for his glory as he sees fit.

 

You see, all gifts and talents have a dark side. This dark side of any gift or talent is manifest by our own selfish desires, our pride, and our extreme need for control. Surrender says Lord, I want my desires to be pleasing to you. Lord, I only want to boast in you as my Savior. It is God who enables us to do all things great or small. Surrender turns loose of control and trust that God will always be more than enough in all things. Surrender knows that I will be a better person regardless of the outcome because I trust my Creator. Surrender knows beyond a shadow of doubt that the moment I surrender my life to God, my life has been saved!

 

I must never assume that just because I have given my life to Jesus Christ that all my minutes, hours, and days have been automatically surrendered to God. Constantly I am being faced with new circumstances, challenges, lusts, and fears. I give my life to Christ but I surrender my will for my life over and over again. Each problem, situation, test, challenge, and desire has to be sifted through God’s heavenly sifter. The good will automatically sift through without effort, but the lumps of selfishness, pride, lust, anger, and fear must be surrendered. God sees all of my imperfections and he goes to work purifying that which is not good when I lovingly surrender each day every sinful imperfection to him for his sifting and refining.

 

Surrender is the open door whereby God comes into our thinking and ministers to our emotions. When God sees that we recognize our need for him, and when he sees us lift our hands in downright “God, I give up” surrender, he will then begin to work in our life to bring about his purpose for us. God’s plan is not to destroy who we are but to mold us into all that we were meant to be. Our temperament and our personality will shine for Jesus when we walk the path of surrender. Our talents and giftedness will blossom and bring glory to him! Surrender also allows us to experience peace of heart and mind regarding our future.

 

Total surrender is not defeat. It is victory! Surrender to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the key to living the abundant life both now and in eternity. No matter how many days we struggle with getting to the point of total surrender on any issue, the end result is always the same. Sweet peace is the prize that is waiting for us at the end of total relinquishment. We will also discover that joy will fill the void that was previously filled with our controlling, selfish, fearful will.

 

Every day we face struggling with our own “precious” will. Our emotions always seem to get in the way of our spiritual progress. In our head we know what we must do but in our heart we often struggle. We will always have choices to be made. God wants us to make righteous, holy choices. No way can we do this without the power of God in our lives. The Holy Spirit is always there to help us in our hour of need. Without a doubt God knows that we are dust. Out of dust we were formed into a fragile jar of clay. Inside that jar lives all our gifts and talents. If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit also lives within you. He is there all day, every day waiting to be summoned. When we recognize our need and call upon the Spirit he responds, and wonderful things happen. Our mind-set changes, our burdens are lifted, and sweet peace is ours. The result of our surrender is nothing short of amazing!

 

Our God is awesome in every way. There is never a moment that he does not have our best interest close to his heart. He loves us all with an everlasting love and he calls us by name. I do not understand why surrender should be so hard. Under his wings of protection is the safest place any of his children could ever be. Surrender is not to be feared rather it is to be embraced as an open door that will lead to all that God has created us to be! Surrender is the path to blessing.

 

Questions:

1. What are you are struggling with today that needs to be surrendered to God?
2. Have you called upon the Holy Spirit for his help in your time of need?
3. Do you really believe that God is good all the time and always has your best interest at heart?
4. Can you identify what is keeping you from surrendering?
5. Will you choose to relinquish your _______ to your loving Heavenly Father?

Prayer:

 

Dear Father,

 

I am so tired of struggling. Father, I do not know what is best for me. Help me to trust you with my life and the lives of all those I love. I thank you that you continue to call me to come to you, and humbly bow before you in surrender. Father, please take away the ____________ in my heart that keeps me from surrendering to you. Lord, I am weak but you are strong. Thank you Holy Spirit that you are always available to help me in my time of need. Lord, I want to surrender ____________ to you today. Father, I give up, I can not do this alone. I know now that I desperately need your help. Lord, I choose this day to trust you with my life. Thank you for loving me and wanting only what is best for me. Lord, I relinquish to you ___________. Please fill me with your peace and use this struggle in my life for my good and your glory. Father fill me with your peace and give me your joy.

 

In your name I pray. Amen.

God Wants Another Piece of My Heart

“But we all,

with open face beholding as in a glass

the glory of the Lord,

are changed into the same image

from glory to glory,

even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV

One of my favorite childhood memories is working jigsaw puzzles with my family. After all of the pieces were turned over face side up, we then began the task of working the straight edge pieces that would form the shape of the puzzle. It was great fun watching the puzzle picture come into view piece by piece. I still remember my older brother Bob tapping each piece he placed with his fingernail, signaling another victory for his ability to find and place missing puzzle pieces. He also liked to hide one piece in his pocket so that he could be the one to put in place the final piece of the puzzle. In spite of his teasing as we worked the puzzle, I still enjoyed working jigsaw puzzles with him and I have enjoyed passing this activity on to my children and grandchildren.

Today I am thinking about the fact that our heart is very much like a jigsaw puzzle. When we ask God to come into our life, God begins to work on our heart. God first removes the dark shroud of sin from our heart. God then works all of the blood red edge pieces of our hearts puzzle to form the perfect shape that he has planned for our life. Even though we have been forgiven there is still much work to do in our heart. The sin that separated us from God is gone, but the sin that comes from our sinful nature still needs God’s sanctification process. As we walk with God, he exposes many sinful pieces of our heart’s puzzle. The light of God’s love now shines on our heart as he begins the process of  identifying  and revealing each sinful puzzle piece of our heart’s puzzle.

It is God’s desire that we will allow him to replace each piece with a new piece that has been stamped in the image of his character. My part in working the puzzle of my heart requires me to surrender to God every sinful piece of my heart’s puzzle that he lovingly asks for. When I hand him the piece of the puzzle that he is asking for, he stands ready to replace that missing piece with a piece that resembles a godly characteristic. My entire life my heart’s puzzle will always be a work in progress. The exact picture of the puzzle has not yet been revealed. I am anxiously waiting to see the finished picture that will be unveiled in heaven. God promises me that when I get to heaven, as I search for my face to appear in the puzzle I will be pleasantly surprised to see the face of my Savior, Jesus Christ. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV

Over the years I have gone through the painful experience of relinquishing to God many pieces that make up the puzzle of my heart. Sometimes it takes me years to pry out the piece that God is asking for. You see, every piece of my heart has a specific word written on the face of the puzzle piece. Words like selfishness, pride, anger, hurt, greed, deceit, and gossip. Sometimes there are pieces that remind me of a bad habit, a wall of protection, a spirit of unforgiveness, a desire for revenge, or unkind words. Some of the more difficult pieces to relinquish to God have been a spirit of irritation, a judgmental spirit, and the piece that screams fear. There is also that reoccurring piece that says control. This piece is especially hard to surrender as it stubbornly clings to the wall of my heart.

I have found that when I am able to surrender to him the piece of the puzzle baring the word hate, he replaces it with another piece that has love written on its face. When God asks me to relinquish to him the piece that has fear written on it, he then takes that piece and replaces it with a piece that reads trust. He takes the control piece and taps in its place a piece labeled surrender.

Every time I release a specific piece of my heart’s puzzle to God, it seems that God will then immediately go after another piece of my heart. Day after day God continues to ask me for additional pieces of my heart’s puzzle, one ugly piece at a time.  It is God's desires to replace each sinful piece of my heart’s puzzle with his words of grace. God wants to replace irritation with compassion, judgment with mercy, and impatience with patience. God wants to replace fear with trust, pride with humility, and anger with his peace.

The truth is God always wants another piece of my heart. He will never take it but he lovingly waits for me to hand it to him. As God removes each piece I hand him  he always replaces it with a new piece that is a perfect fit. I wish I could say that once trust is in place it remains there forever and that when fear is removed I always live in perfect peace. I wish I could say that once God removes a puzzle piece of irritation that I would always exhibit compassion. The fact is there are multiple pieces each labeled with a sinful word. There is a puzzle piece for every situation I will ever encounter in this life. I am in constant need of a puzzle working partner who is a Master. Jesus is the one who will help me work the puzzle pieces of my heart into a picture of his perfection. Every situation, every circumstance, every relationship, every encounter, and every hurt will always need the touch of Master puzzle worker’s hand. Jesus also  stands ready to make sure that a good puzzle piece that is already in place does not become loose and break away. If forgiveness, trust, love, kindness, joy, or peace becomes loose and about to disconnect, Jesus is standing by ready to help me safely secure that piece of my heart’s puzzle back into its proper firm position. I must always listen to his voice of love that warns me when I am about to dislodge a piece that is representative of his goodness and full of his grace.

The knowledge that God always wants another piece of my heart is one of my greatest blessings! My deepest longing to be more and more like Jesus Christ. One by one, God continues to ask me to willingly surrender every piece of my heart puzzle that does not reflect his image. This is his holy process that is changing me from “glory to glory.” As I mature in my faith it is my desire that more and more of the pieces of my heart's puzzle would remain intact. I pray I will not struggle so hard and long as I move toward surrendering every piece that he asks for. I want to willingly pry each sinful piece from my heart and open handedly quickly place each piece in his competent hand.

I believe  when we walk with Jesus and listen to his voice and obey his commands the picture on our heart's puzzle is becoming more and more beautiful. Someday our life on this earth will be over and we will meet Jesus face to face. At that point I imagine Jesus will pull from his robe pocket the very last piece of our heart’s puzzle. As he taps the last piece of the puzzle in place he will smile and say, “It is finished!” and then he will welcome each one of us into heaven for all eternity.

Questions:

1.Do you find that you are always in need of a replacement puzzle piece?

2. Do you try to work your heart’s puzzle alone?

3. Are you blessed by the fact that because of Jesus’ great love for you he always wants another piece of your heart?

4. What specific piece is Jesus asking you for today?

5. Will today be the day you will surrender that piece of your heart’s puzzle to him?

Prayer:

Dear Jesus,

Forgive me when I become upset and frustrated because I see you standing in front of me with an open, outstretched hand asking me for another piece of my heart’s puzzle. There are times I do not want to surrender the piece I love! When you take away those pieces you are taking away my face, my image, and my will. On the other hand, I am so glad that you love me so much that you are never satisfied with an incomplete puzzle. I am blessed to know that you always want another piece of my heart. Help me Lord to walk through my life with you by my side. As we sit in the garden together show me the next piece of my heart’s puzzle that you want to replace. I am well aware of times when life catches me off guard and throws me for a loop; please guard the puzzle of my heart. Do not allow any of the pieces that you have already replaced to become disconnected. Firmly hold those pieces in place. Protect my thinking so that I do not allow Satan to dislodge the pieces that you have lovingly changed. Help me to look to you for strength that will enable me to surrender to you the damaging puzzle pieces that I still cling to so tightly. Jesus, I thank you that because you love me you will never stop asking me for yet another piece of my heart.

In Your Name I Pray. Amen.