Surrender Seriously or Not At All

---This is a devotional I wrote for the facebook group titled 'The New Breed For The Cause (A Devotional Group)' you should join (: I send out the ones I write on Saturdays in a fb message to all the members... and this one, will be sent out on 2/20/10.---

As I was walking home from the bus stop on Thursday (2/11/10), I had the song ‘Any Road, Any Cost’ by Point Of Grace playing on my mp3 player, and I began to think, “Am I truly willing to surrender everything, surrender every part of my life to Jesus and follow where He leads me?” At that point I began to question myself and wonder if God is ever pleased with the way Christians these days choose to surrender their lives. How is partial surrender biblical? Either you surrender seriously or just don’t even bother if you’re going to give God the attitude of ‘Oh you can have this area of my life, but you can’t have this part, because it’s mine.’ How is that biblical? Give me a verse that supports that excuse to not fully surrendering everything to Christ… He gave it all for you on that cross, why aren’t you giving your all back to Him?

If we we’re to be honest, we have no acceptable excuse for that type of response.

Here’s something from Mark 8:34

Then Jesus called the people to him. His followers were also there. Then Jesus said, "If any person wants to follow me, he must say 'No' to the things he wants. That person must accept the cross (suffering) that is given to him, and he must follow me. (ERV)

I don’t know about you, but I fail at times when it comes to this whole surrendering thing. Why do we fail? Because this word ‘surrender’ is hardly mentioned in today’s world, nor is it something that people want to strive for. This world has a whole another message (‘get what you want and don’t worry about anyone else,” “do what you want to do and don’t allow others to tell you what is right or wrong…” etc.) and I’d probably have another devotional or two just to cover that one.

I, personally, think that the whole idea of surrendering ones life fully to Christ, is something that every Christian out there struggles with, because that word ‘surrender’ is not talked about nor is it something that people think of as something they should do… because after all, they most likely think that it’s some stupid robotic thing where it’s actually not even like that! It’s not some ‘Oh, I’ve surrendered my life to Christ, now what do I do?... Say “beep beep I love you, God’ “Beep beep I love you, God.’ God didn’t create us to be like robots, nor am I convinced that he wants us to give a robotic like response… He loves us and therefore we shouldn’t give that sort of response to One who loves us so much that He gave his only Son.

I think people who have surrendered their lives to Christ, although they face their struggles with it, are looked down upon by this world as people who have lost their minds and have surrendered everything to this God whom no one has ever seen. And that takes faith!

Check out Hebrews 11:1 and what it has to say about faith;

1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Now, I’m almost done with this devotional but I would like to give you a verse in Revelation chapter 3 verses 15-16;

15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

When you do partial surrender, you’re making God sick in a sense… surrender your life seriously or not at all. Hot or cold? Love him? Hate him?

At the cross, Jesus gave His all just for you… He expects you to give Him your all.

Are you willing to pick up your cross and “Follow Me (Jesus)”? I sure am. Let’s not fake it this time though. Mean it every step of the way and let's continue to fight the good fight.

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:12)

REMEMBER: Jesus said, "If any person wants to follow me, he must say 'No' to the things he wants. That person must accept the cross (suffering) that is given to him, and he must follow me. (ERV)

14For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. (2 Cor. 5:14)

- Katelyn