God has really been speaking to my heart about one word. That one word is Surrender. Because I believe this topic is so important to us as Christians, we will be discussing it over the next few weeks on Worship Wednesdays.
Surrender: to yield to the power, control, or possession of another..
Surrender is an unpopular word, right up there with the word submission. When I think of surrender, I think of losing, as in a battle; of being captured, surrounded and defeated. This word, surrender, is not something we like to talk about very often. It's easier to focus on winning, overcoming, and succeeding. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship. It's the natural response to God's incredible love and mercy.
After Paul explains God's amazing grace to us, he then urges us to fully surrender our lives to God in worship.
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice--the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1
Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about. When we talk about making Jesus our Lord, taking up our cross and dying to self, we are really talking about surrender. God wants our life - all of it. We bring God pleasure when we give ourselves completely to Him.
So, if this is what God wants from us and it's what bring Him pleasure, what keeps us from completely surrendering to Him?
Fear, Pride and Confusion
We don't realize how much God loves us, we want to control our own lives, and we misunderstand the meaning of surrender.
Next week we will discuss the first two barriers to surrender, fear and pride. Then the week after that we talk about confusion and what it really means to surrender.
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Lisa, interesting you have had that topic on your heart. As I walked around my block yesterday...the same word was on my heart. Look forward to following along.
ReplyDeleteHi Lisa - I am looking forward to reading your whole series. I know it will definitely speak into my heart.
ReplyDeleteGod bless
Tracy
Looking forward to reading more on surrender. Surrender often sounds like giving up and we know that we are not supposed to give up. But true surrender is true worship. We must give up all we are to God.
ReplyDeleteOh, great series! Surrender is really hard, but it's so true that... "surrendering to God is the heart of worship" Looking forward to hearing more Lisa. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading more of your posts on surrender. Relinquishing our dreams,desires, rights etc is always hard. Yet, it is only then that God can totally use us and make us who he wants us to be.
ReplyDeleteI love this "Offering yourself to God is what worship is all about. When we talk about making Jesus our Lord, taking up our cross and dying to self, we are really talking about surrender." Amen:)
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