What does complete surrender to God look like?
““To become one with Jesus Christ, a person must be willing not only to give up sin, but also to surrender his whole way of looking at things.” (Oswald Chambers)”
Complete surrender to Jesus will require a new “world view”. We cannot drag the old nature of sinful man: Culturally sanctioned ideas, life long held philosophical views or religious habits into the room of surrender. God will have none of it! There is no true surrender where we choose to set our own doctrine. Nothing of our old world view is negotiable with God.
“12 There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him, but at the end of it is the way of death.” (Prov. 14:12)
Our view of life is obscured so that we cannot see clearly. Our best attempts to reason right and wrong outside of God lead us to destructive paths. Our view of what is good may be what is good for us or what is best for our best interest. There is little to no sacrifice in love that is conceived outside God. It ends in fulfilling our lust, desires or quieting our momentary loneliness.
In fact we cannot even define LOVE outside of God. Society says if two people “love” each other they should be together. Sometimes the highest form of love is to refuse to be together. Many an unfaithful husband or wife could teach this lesson. Our emotions and feelings do not define love. A quick look at I Corinthians 13:4-6 will help us define LOVE God’s way.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. 6 It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
To surrender to Jesus means we will allow him to shape our worldview! The Bible will define, clarify and lead us as we allow the Holy Spirit to bring it to life in our spirit. We will invite Him to lead us everyday as we make big and small decisions for our lives recognizing that our choices are determining our direction.
Are you ready for this kind of full surrender to God? The wonderful part of complete surrender to God through Jesus is that when you do it, God will make your desires for His purposes in your life match His will for you. In other words you will start wanting in your life God’s highest and best. You will find that the things you held onto so tightly and the belief systems you trusted in so deeply will begin to fade. For the first time in your life you will be able to see spiritually clear. The things that made sense to you before or those things you justified in your life before, you will now see clearly as destructive, unhelpful and not in the best interest of anyone.
How do you begin full surrender to Jesus? I want to invite you to pray the prayer below. If you mean this with your whole heart, Jesus will accept your invitation and begin to change your life. Remember that complete surrender is not just a one-time action. We need to surrender our lives to Christ each day we awake. You don’t have to pray the prayer below everyday but you do need to invite Jesus each day into your daily decision making process. Let Him lead. Do not try to go back and take over even when the ride gets rough. Let’s pray.
“Jesus, I am at the end of my rope. I am exhausted trying to make sense of life, calibrating it based on my worldview. Today, I make a full and complete surrender to you! I ask you to be the Lord/Leader of my life. I believe you died for me and I believe you rose again to live for me and in me! I ask you to forgive me of all my sins. Teach me your ways. Help me be faithful to you, your church and your mission. Help me understand your Word (the Bible) so that I can live it out on a daily basis. I surrender my worldview and invite you to shape your worldview in me. I ask this in Jesus name Amen!”
IMPORTANT: You need to be in church on a regular basis. The church is the body of Christ. Together we encourage one another in our Christian faith and daily walk with Jesus. If you do not have a home church I want to invite you to the Grace Place Austin at 1500 Royston Lane, Round Rock, Texas. Sunday morning service starts at 10:30am. If you do not have a Bible we would like to provide you one FREE of charge. Let us know when you attend or you can email us at info@gp.church
If you located outside of the Austin area we can help you find a good home church in your area just write to us and ask for help. Please let us know how our video, blog and website is helping you. We would love to hear your Grace Place Story.
Alan Kirkpatrick/Pastor
Grace Place Austin