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"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." John 17:4
Surrender is not the surrender of the external life, but of the will; when that is done, all is done. There are very few crises in life; the great crisis is the surrender of the will. God never crushes a man's will into surrender, He never beseeches him, He waits until the man yields up his will to Him. That battle never needs to be re-fought.
Surrender for Deliverance. "Come unto Me and I will give you rest." It is after we have begun to experience what salvation means that we surrender our wills to Jesus for rest. Whatever is perplexing heart or mind is a call to the will - "Come unto Me." It is a voluntary coming.
Surrender for Devotion. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself." The surrender here is of my self to Jesus, my self with His rest at the heart of it. "If you would be My disciple, give up your right to yourself to Me." Then the remainder of the life is nothing but the manifestation of this surrender. When once the surrender has taken place we never need "suppose" anything. We do not need to care what our circumstances are, Jesus is amply sufficient.
Surrender for Death. John 21:18-19. ". . . another shall gird thee." Have you learned what it means to be bound for death? Beware of a surrender which you make to God in an ecstasy; you are apt to take it back again. It is a question of being united with Jesus in His death until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.
After surrender - what? The whole of the life after surrender is an aspiration for unbroken communion with God.
(From "My Utmost for His Highest" daily devotions by Oswald Chambers)
6 comments:
Reading through this myself. He's something else all right! Such a powerful reminder.
Kat
I said you were deep. I'm not suprised to see one of the deepest in your library. My Utmost for His Highest.
Thank you.
I am crucified with Christ never the less I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me...
Got you hooked on Utmost, eh? Chambers was brilliant.
This really spoke to me. Surrender is something I struggle with every day. I guess even after all my failures, a part of me still thinks that when it comes to my life, I still know better than God does.
But I'm getting there.
Joanne - Amazing how something written so long ago is still so relevant today.
Doug - I love me some Oswald Chambers!
Angela - Yes. I owe it all to you. You are the wind beneath my wings. (Snort!)
Billy - I keep thinking I know better than Him, too. But He keeps assuring me that that is definitely NOT the case. So yeah, I'm getting there too.
I read that entry in my My Utmost for His Highest this weekend and actually thought of you since I know you do the same devotions. This was a good one and it resonates with me each year I read it.
Thank you for sharing it is such a creative way...
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