On Living a Surrendered Life
Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. -Matthew 7:21
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. -Luke 3:8
Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is your master. You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey God, which makes you right with Him. -Romans 6:16
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. - 2 John 1:6
The partially surrendered life may be Christian in spirit, but it is secular in practice. It may save one's soul, but it hardly leaves a noticeable ripple on one's lifestyle, life view, or the world and culture in which we live. Of what earthly value is Christianity if it leaves no indelible mark on one's lifestyle? It is of no value (in this life) to be Christian if you do not think Christianly - if you do not have a Christian life view.
We live in a broken generation. One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to make this observation, but the obvious question, of course, is Why? Many think the answer is confusing, but it is not. it is found throughout the record of Scripture - it is disobedience. It is to lead a partially surrendered, or worse, an unsurrendered, unyielded life. How can we learn to be obedient? We must learn how to surrender, to submit to Christ in the details of daily life.
Over the past few decades, many of us started off on the wrong foot with Jesus Christ. It is the proposition that Jesus can be Savior without being Lord. It is the idea that one can add Christ, but not subtract sin. Many of us have merely added Christ to our lives as another interest in an already busy and otherwise overcrowded schedule. This sort of thinking has watered down the meaning of a personal relationship with Christ.
The problem is that we often seek the God we want, but do not know the God who is. Many men and women I have met express complete, utter frustration about leading this kind of defeated (sometimes counterfeit), partially surrendered life - the life of a cultural Christian.
How did this come about? The low demands of cultural Christianity have led to a low response - it has become the norm. But the Bible calls men and women to a turning point, to a radical, life-transforming change. This turning point is no mean challenge, but a full surrender to history's most ideal, most radical leader: the Lord Jesus Christ..
-From Walking with Christ in the Details of Life by Patrick Morley; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
I get pretty passionate about this topic, many times to a fault. Following Christ starts with an acceptance that we are born sinners, separated from God. We see that the only way to salvation is by humbly admitting our need for a Savior. We believe that Jesus Christ is that Savior - that He is the Son of God, born from a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who willingly died on the cross for the sins of men, who conquered death by rising three days later and ascended into heaven where He is preparing a place for those who call Him Lord. When we accept God's grace and forgiveness, out of gratitude, we desire to obey God's principles in order to please Him and bring Him glory.
How do we learn what God's principles are? We read the Bible. In doing so we learn more about how God wants us to live - "not as unwise but as wise" (Ephesians 5:15). We also attend church to have as set time each week to worship the Lord; to receive more biblical teaching; and to fellowship with other believers for encouragement - "as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
As we read the Bible and receive biblical teaching we see how God wants us to live and how He wants us to view the world. This is a Christian world-view. When issues of morality arise, we don't simply look to the laws to determine if something is okay, we look to the higher authority of God the Father. As our pastor discussed in his message last Sunday - just because something is legal, doesn't make it moral. As Christians, we are to take a stand for God's standards, and not allow ourselves to become desensitized to the ways of the world.
As this devotion said, disobedience is the root cause of living as a cultural Christian. Not being willing to fully surrender yourself to God the Father by obeying His principles will keep you from living a truly Christian life. Salvation is to bring us to that "turning point" where we say "not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39).
These thoughts challenge me personally to continue to study the Word of God, to maintain a humble spirit in order to live a life that pleases my Savior, and to remain steadfast in teaching and training my children to develop a Christian world-view. I am grieved for those who claim Christ but refuse to live a truly surrendered life and saddened by the direction society is headed. But even if this world never chooses to follow "history's most ideal, most radical leader, the Lord Jesus Christ", I know that there lies a future where "every knee will bow. . . (and) every tongue will acknowledge God" (Romans 14:11). Until then, may all those who claim Christ live a life that "leaves (an) indelible mark on (their) lifestyle" to the glory of God.
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. -Luke 3:8
Surely you know that when you give yourselves like slaves to obey someone, then you are really slaves of that person. The person you obey is your master. You can follow sin, which brings spiritual death, or you can obey God, which makes you right with Him. -Romans 6:16
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love. - 2 John 1:6
The partially surrendered life may be Christian in spirit, but it is secular in practice. It may save one's soul, but it hardly leaves a noticeable ripple on one's lifestyle, life view, or the world and culture in which we live. Of what earthly value is Christianity if it leaves no indelible mark on one's lifestyle? It is of no value (in this life) to be Christian if you do not think Christianly - if you do not have a Christian life view.
We live in a broken generation. One doesn't need to be a rocket scientist to make this observation, but the obvious question, of course, is Why? Many think the answer is confusing, but it is not. it is found throughout the record of Scripture - it is disobedience. It is to lead a partially surrendered, or worse, an unsurrendered, unyielded life. How can we learn to be obedient? We must learn how to surrender, to submit to Christ in the details of daily life.
Over the past few decades, many of us started off on the wrong foot with Jesus Christ. It is the proposition that Jesus can be Savior without being Lord. It is the idea that one can add Christ, but not subtract sin. Many of us have merely added Christ to our lives as another interest in an already busy and otherwise overcrowded schedule. This sort of thinking has watered down the meaning of a personal relationship with Christ.
The problem is that we often seek the God we want, but do not know the God who is. Many men and women I have met express complete, utter frustration about leading this kind of defeated (sometimes counterfeit), partially surrendered life - the life of a cultural Christian.
How did this come about? The low demands of cultural Christianity have led to a low response - it has become the norm. But the Bible calls men and women to a turning point, to a radical, life-transforming change. This turning point is no mean challenge, but a full surrender to history's most ideal, most radical leader: the Lord Jesus Christ..
-From Walking with Christ in the Details of Life by Patrick Morley; part of The Inspirational Study Bible: New Century Version by Max Lucado
I get pretty passionate about this topic, many times to a fault. Following Christ starts with an acceptance that we are born sinners, separated from God. We see that the only way to salvation is by humbly admitting our need for a Savior. We believe that Jesus Christ is that Savior - that He is the Son of God, born from a virgin, who lived a sinless life, who willingly died on the cross for the sins of men, who conquered death by rising three days later and ascended into heaven where He is preparing a place for those who call Him Lord. When we accept God's grace and forgiveness, out of gratitude, we desire to obey God's principles in order to please Him and bring Him glory.
How do we learn what God's principles are? We read the Bible. In doing so we learn more about how God wants us to live - "not as unwise but as wise" (Ephesians 5:15). We also attend church to have as set time each week to worship the Lord; to receive more biblical teaching; and to fellowship with other believers for encouragement - "as iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).
As we read the Bible and receive biblical teaching we see how God wants us to live and how He wants us to view the world. This is a Christian world-view. When issues of morality arise, we don't simply look to the laws to determine if something is okay, we look to the higher authority of God the Father. As our pastor discussed in his message last Sunday - just because something is legal, doesn't make it moral. As Christians, we are to take a stand for God's standards, and not allow ourselves to become desensitized to the ways of the world.
As this devotion said, disobedience is the root cause of living as a cultural Christian. Not being willing to fully surrender yourself to God the Father by obeying His principles will keep you from living a truly Christian life. Salvation is to bring us to that "turning point" where we say "not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39).
These thoughts challenge me personally to continue to study the Word of God, to maintain a humble spirit in order to live a life that pleases my Savior, and to remain steadfast in teaching and training my children to develop a Christian world-view. I am grieved for those who claim Christ but refuse to live a truly surrendered life and saddened by the direction society is headed. But even if this world never chooses to follow "history's most ideal, most radical leader, the Lord Jesus Christ", I know that there lies a future where "every knee will bow. . . (and) every tongue will acknowledge God" (Romans 14:11). Until then, may all those who claim Christ live a life that "leaves (an) indelible mark on (their) lifestyle" to the glory of God.
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