Are you sick and tired of the way your life is going? Have you been running this railroad too long and you’re ready to jump off – but you don’t know how or what the results will be?
I understand. I’ve been there.
If you’ve never accepted the free gift of salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, pay attention. This could be your day to escape the chaos and enter peace.
If you know Christ as Savior, pay attention, your mixed-up, messed-up life can be fixed.
Earlier in the letter we know as 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul talked about how he had previously viewed Jesus – from a human standpoint. Makes sense, since Paul WAS human. Then he says, “How differently we know Him now!”
Sounds like some growth through intimacy happened along the way. Intimacy of being together, talking, listening, silence in the presence.
It means surrender.
Ooh, we do NOT like that word, but if we’re going to see our challenges answered correctly, it’s what we must do.
We must surrender our need to be in control.
We must surrender our old ways of thinking.
We must surrender our wills.
We must surrender everything, turning all control, all choices, all beliefs over to the care and control of Jesus Christ.
This is what being IN Christ looks like. Less of me, mostly Him.
When we do that, we start to look different. Our faces, previously contorted with fear and anger become peaceful. Our bodies are no longer a bundle of tense wires and dynamite ready to be set off. Our hearts have a compassion we wonder it’s origin – we may have never felt that before.
When we choose to surrender being in us and surrender to be in Him, we become all new creatures. We don’t look or act like we used to. We don’t talk or believe like we used to.
We’re so different, people notice.
Believer, when is the last time someone noticed you are different? Give up. Let go again and let Jesus hold the reins of your life. Give up. Surrender ALL of you.
Seeker, are you ready for a new and improved you? Give up. Just give up trying to run your life and prepare your future. Look at Jesus. He was born of a virgin (how is that possible???), lived on this earth without ever stepping out of God’s will.
He healed the sick and lame. He turned lives around from horrendous behaviors to godly ones. He was unlawfully tried, convicted of something He never did. He was tortured until He was unrecognizable, then forced to walk to the hill called Calvary or Golgotha, sometimes carrying the heavy beam of a criminal’s cross.
He was nailed to that cross, even though He was innocent. The only sin (wrongs according to God) He bore there were those of mankind. All humans. You and me.
He was mocked and ridiculed until He died. He was buried and on the third day, He rose again. By doing that, He conquered death and the grave. After appearing to over 500 people, he rose up into Heaven.
He lived and suffered that heinous death for us, you and me. All so we could shed our ungodly ways and surrender to Him. The benefit is life forever with Him in a special place prepared for us. What we leave behind is a forever without any trace of God. A forever without love of any kind, without any moments of joy or happiness. A forever with noise and many, many others crying out in pain and disgust. A forever filled with the unrelenting worst behaviors we’ve ever seen and even worse than that.
If you want to have Life, choose to follow Jesus. Choose to accept in your heart that what He did, He did for you. Surrender you to Him and see how much you change. And how much you change the world around you.
We all have moves we need to make today. I’m asking God to show me what areas of me I haven’t surrendered to Him. I want to completely be that new creature He designed me to be.
Coffee, Bible, Journal.