I feel like I've had the same discussion with several people over the past few weeks so I thought I would share it here as well. We have been talking about the radical difference between following Christ and surrendering to His will. I was saved in 1998, not too long after my brother's accident. By saved, I mean that I recognized that Jesus Christ was my Lord and Savior and that He had died for my sins. By His death, I was made new. I felt an immediate change in me. There was a peace in my heart that I had never experienced before. I began reading the bible and trying to learn more about God. As Pastor Michael used to say, God works out salvation in many different ways. I had a few hurdles and setbacks in the first few years but God didn't give up on me.
I went on this way, chasing after Jesus, striving to be "enough" and then God called me to another church. This church was different and it was there, at Desperation Church, that I began to learn about the love of God. I began to learn that there was no such thing as "enough". I had been striving for 11 years to be good enough for God...but I found that God loves me for who I am already. I am good "enough" simply because I am HIS. It was when I realized this truth...and I mean really understood it, that my life truly began to change. I went from being someone who gave my life to Christ to someone who let Christ fully into mine. I entered a place of true surrender. Relying on the Lord to direct my path.
A few weeks ago, my dear friend sent me an email that said, "...I had a similar talk with God today. I just told Him that if He needs to continue to break me for anything to make me the person I am supposed to be, I am okay with that." I told her that she was in for the ride of her life. That she had entered into that sweet place of sweet surrender. I warned her that it will be tough and that God will continue to break her, and it will hurt, and she will wish she never told Him that He could..and that she will be better for it.
See, God's going to break you, and mold you into who He needs you to be but it so much sweeter when you are a willing participant. You look at each thing that happens to you as a blessing or a lesson. It changes your perspective on life. God will use those lessons to allow you to speak into the lives of others so that they might learn the lesson a little bit faster than you did.
Are you a God follower who is simply walking it out, trying to follow the "rules" or are you in a place of surrender where you are earnestly seeking His will for your life, regardless of the cost? I would encourage you to ask Him on a constant basis, for Him to break you.
