On Thanksgiving day my dad dragged my mom and me out to a tiny little church in the middle of nowhere to hear some friend's of his preach. I'm not gonna lie, I had no desire to go. But my dad really wanted to so my mom and I gave in. I'm really glad we did.
I'd forgotten how much I love hearing his friends preach. When they study a passage, they get into everything: the history of the people, the place, the context, etc. Plus, they study the original language (mainly Greek-it's what the majority of the New Testament was originally written in). It's amazing how much truth can be derived from a single verse when you really understand what the author was trying to say.
The preacher spoke from Matthew. It was the feeding of the 4,000. No, not the 5,000, the 4,000 (The feeding of the 5,000 is in chapter 14, the feeding of the 4,000 is in chapter 15). Scholars believe that the two happened within 2-3 months of each other. It's the exact same scenario except one happens in a grassy area and the other in a grassless, bare area, and the first time around there's a thousand more men to be counted. The 12 disciples are there. There are thousands of hungry people and Jesus, who wants to care for their physical and spiritual needs. The first time around, the disciples don't believe that Jesus can feed the crowd with five loaves of bread and a couple fish. But God does this incredible, inexplicable miracle and thousands of people walk away with full bellies and it's fabulous! And the disciples see all of this and you'd think that it would be something they would remember and not ever doubt again. But a few months later the same thing comes up and get this: They actually question whether or not Jesus can feed 4,000 people. Dumb disciples!
But how many times do we, today, in our own lives, see the miracles and the blessings and the mighty hand of God at work in a situation, and then when something similar happens later we doubt whether or not He can handle it. We refuse to surrender our notion that if it's impossible for man it's impossible for God (which God has disproven since the dawn of time).
But what if we were to give up what has been for what is to be?
Our preconceived notions about life, or even pain from the environments we grew up in, our unmet expectations, past hurts and hardships that we just can't seem to get over.
What if we sacrificed it, laid it all at the feet of Jesus, so that God could move in and do everything He wants to do?
He could heal. He could restore. He could absolutely pour out His heart into His children and give them passions and dreams and desires that they never would have experienced apart from Him.
We could partake in the compassion of God. We could share in the heart that so desires something more for the people of this world. We could love selflessly. We could give freely and without reservation. We could go places and do things that we'd never imagined. And we get to walk every step of the way with the God of the universe, who created us and breathes life into us and from the moment we're born pursues us to the ends of the earth just to know us.
And all God asks of us is to sacrifice those things we hold on to, those things we can't change.
I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty simple. I surrender the crap of my life to Jesus, and He comes in and pours Himself into me. Sure, I may have to give up my pride, I may have to deal with stuff I'd rather leave hidden, but in the end, knowing Christ and making Him known to a hurting world is so worth any sacrifice on my part. And any sacrifice Christ asks me to make is doable, because He sacrificed everything.
Jesus, You've invited me to enter into this totally amazing relationship with you, and I'm there. And now You say to surrender my all for what you want to do, and I can't find any reason not to. You are a faithful and have proven Yourself worthy of all our trust over and over again. I am whole-heartedly Yours. Do in me whatever You want to do, for You have greater things in mind than I could ever think up for myself.
1 comment:
i admire what you have to say, and i have much respect for you.
it is kinda ironic how we are like the deciples, we see miracles and yet don't believe He could handle our problems.
I think we need to forget about what we think we know and just shut up. We are always talking when it comes to God, and we need to listen to what he has to say.
If we only knew what we miss when we don't miss out on God.
I am inspired to take your challenge about surrenduring. Thank you for posting this blog, it has helped me :)
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