We sing and pray ~ “Give me Your heart, O God”. It’s a great song. Do we, in turn, give our hearts completely to Him? There is a prerequisite of surrender that then allows us to receive everything God has for us. That seems to slip a lot of Christian minds. We behave as spoiled children… stomping our feet, whining and throwing a hissy fit to “get what we think we want/deserve”… continuing to ask for more and more, never accepting the responsibility of our duty to the Most Holy God. Sometimes Father God has to show us a little tough love. God desires that we love Him. He loves us. It’s Who He is! He can do no less, as His love is unwavering and unchanging (unlike ours). It is in our surrendering to His vision for us, what He desires us to ultimately become, that we align ourselves to His purposes. He must be enthroned in His temple…
1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (who is) in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
Right now, is He the center of your life… are you passionately seeking after Him… does He have control of everything in you? He paid for you so long ago on that cross… is there any room for Him in your life? Or is He relegated to digging you out of trials and troubles or a couple of hours on Sunday? He chose to lay down His life for my sins, your sins. How can we do less for Him? How can we, at the foot of the cross, decide how we want Him to be in our lives?
As believers, we have been offered everything! There’s a banquet set by the King in front of us… never to hunger or thirst again. Who among us can truly grasp this truth or the delicacies of the feast? He bids us eat. Are we too absorbed in ourselves and life that we grab mere morsels and dash away from His Presence in pursuit of our self indulgences… content with scraps that are unable to spiritually sustain. How this breaks His heart, when He has so much for us ~ every answer we’ve ever needed. How little we value His provision. Without complete surrender to Him and His purposes for our lives, I believe our attempts to worship, adore and reverence the most High and Holy God are but pitiful crumbs on the floor beneath His banquet table.
He says, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Can we say the same? Just how much does God love us? Enough to convict us to examine our hearts and with Holy Spirit guidance see those places that are not fully surrendered to Him. Then, we must choose to repent and turn away from those familiar places that control our lives and accept that Jesus, who bought us with great price knows far better than we, how He desires us to live. I encourage you to find those places not fully surrendered, offer them as a sweet sacrifice to God and experience a new place of freedom.
Psalm 42:1 