Sometimes when we get what we want from God, we forget why He called us in the first place. We make God the tap we open when we’re thirsty and close when our thirst is quenched. Well to be fair, it’s not entirely wrong, at least when we start out from being born again.
Like a little boy that always expects a gift from His Dad when He comes back every day from work. God is our good Father and delights in us, and isn’t intimidated when we desire to "bill" Him daily.
Nowadays though, I’m seeing a point in my journey that perhaps there’s more blessing in pursuing the gift giver than being only interested in the gifts He willingly gives. I've been asking myself this lately:
Isn’t God more capable of providing for me exactly what I need for my life, much more than what I strive to get for myself by myself?
I’m beginning to believe that part of growing up is realizing that God your Father, wants you more than what you want to receive from Him. That as the ultimate creator, He can fashion out a path for your life more excellently than you can ever plan or desire for yourself.
I think it is fair to say our journey as Christians will involve coming to terms with the surrender requirement, one way or the other.
And yeah this is not easy. It will require everything from us and I really mean everything, You can’t even begin to imagine the internal battles, the tug of war, you’ll naively embark on, in a bid to hold back all from God. I know, I’ve been there multiple times and I’m still there, and if you’re not already in you’ll be soon.
The following excerpt from the book of Luke 9 captures this rather poignantly:
As they were walking along, someone said to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
But Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head.”
He said to another person, “Come, follow me.”
The man agreed, but he said, “Lord, first let me return home and bury my father.”
But Jesus told him, “Let the spiritually dead bury their own dead! Your duty is to go and preach about the Kingdom of God.”
Another said, “Yes, Lord, I will follow you, but first let me say goodbye to my family.”
But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plough and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
If we truly want to follow God, then we should expect that God will not hold back His desire for all of us.
One by one, little by little chipping away from our lives everything that is not fully surrendered the Holy Spirit will guide us. This process is painful, and we’ll lose ourselves truly.
But perhaps like a lump of dug-out earth passing through intense heat, and burning, shedding bits and pieces of itself it naively thought was useful. We’ll come out shining and sparkling in our true form. Giving glory to the ultimate creator who truly
has good intentions for us.
So come as you are. Yep, that’s right! but you’ll not remain as you are. surely, surely God will demand your surrender. The Holy Ghost will orchestrate circumstances for every single aspect of your life to be laid bare before God in full surrender. Till we achieve a final form: true oneness with God.
Let’s receive the grace to surrender when the Holy Ghost shows us the parts of our lives we're still holding on to.
Cheers!!
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