Christian Living

CHOOSING THE SURRENDERED LIFE

by Chi Onwuchekwa
07/19/21
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CHOOSING THE SURRENDERED LIFE

“No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again...”      John 10:18 NLT

The surrendered life in its simplest definition is that which willingly concedes to God its own ways of looking at things; it is a life that empties itself of its own will to take on board God’s will; it’s a life that acknowledges its own power to do what it wills but concedes that right to doing only the will of God.

Those who are close to me will tell you that in recent times I have been tottering on the edge of deep sadness and frustration as I see the injustices in the world and the ever increasing capacity of mankind to conceive and execute evil and wickedness of such dimension that makes you understand why God, who created man would state that he regretted creating him – Genesis 6:6.

Again and again I have wondered why God would give to man the right to choose what he desires to do knowing that the exercise of that right will lead him to desire and do such depths of evil as we see, hear and sometimes personally experience. I have, in my silliness and ignorance asked the Lord if it would not have been better to have created man without the right to chose, limiting and confining all of his life and living to doing only the will of God. Would it not have been better to have not given man the right to choose?

But if God had created mankind without the right to choose his own path, some would have questioned the purity and the sincerity of His love for man. True love does not shackle, it does not imprison, it does not control! True and genuine love is liberating! The beauty of true love is that it gives the beneficiary of it the liberty to respond and come to the one who loved first of its own accord. God gave man the right to choose because of His genuine and sincere love for man.

Bear in mind that the one thing God intended to withhold from man from the beginning was the right to determine what is good and what is evil. That was why He commanded Adam and Eve to not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why? So that they would depend solely on His judgment on what is the good that should be done and what is the evil that must not be done. We know how that story ended! Adam, and consequently all mankind, took upon ourselves the right to determine good from evil. Centuries of evil perpetuated by those claiming to seek good, choices despising and rejecting the ways of the God who created man is the fallout from that single decision!

For the Christian believer, we must surrender that right back to God; we must choose to ‘vomit’ whatever came through Adam to us as a result of eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Isn’t it clear to all by now how incapable mankind, away from God, is in determining what is good from what is evil?

God, in His steadfast and sincere love for us will not force His will on us, even though He can. God, you see, forces neither Himself nor His will on men! Rather, He woos us! Patiently, tenderly He leads us to the knowledge of His will, keeping us alive and in good health, giving us sleep and waking us up daily, putting food on our tables, a roof and shelter over our heads, covering our nakedness and protecting us 24/7; patiently and with much longsuffering He waits for us to acknowledge and accept His love for us including the choices He makes concerning us expecting us to realise that love, and love alone fuels His choices and decisions concerning us. And it is that love that we must respond to by completely and totally surrendering to His will and to His ways!

Centuries ago when I was a teenager (kidding! just years ago), I remember the acronym WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) became popular; I guess it was someone’s genuine way of encouraging believers to simplify their ability to discern the right thing to do by asking what Jesus would have done if He found Himself in the circumstances they are in. It was and still is a great idea! But even that can only work for someone who is persuaded that Jesus’s views and ways represent the truth that is worth believing and emulating.

Every choice mankind has ever made that is a departure from the expressed will of God in the Bible has brought us to this place where evil is called good and good is called evil; it has brought us to a place where majority of those living today have been influenced to despise and reject the One who created them, albeit with no genuine basis for their hatred; it has brought us to a place where elected leaders massacre and spill the innocent blood of those, who with hope, voted them in; it has brought us to a place where those who claim to be servants of God publicly run from defending God’s position on several issues as if they are unsure of His wisdom; it has brought us to a place where many believers have become so enamoured with the affairs of this world that holiness and a call to live a life pleasing to God has become a joke they only purse their lips and smirk at!

Isn’t it clear by now that mankind’s vision of good and evil is twisted and distorted? Isn’t it clear that we lack the capacity to determine what is right and ought to be done from that which is wrong and should not be done? Isn’t it obvious that we need to concede that right to the One who created the universe, man inclusive, the only One with a 360 degree view of all things, in all places and at all times? Isn’t it right to trust repairing and restoring broken humanity and our broken world to the One who has the manual on its formation?

God is mighty and powerful enough to compel all men to obey Him in the twinkle of an eye! Yes He is! Yet He wouldn’t do that because true love does not shackle the object of its love. But, we must not take that love for granted, we must not abuse the gentleness of the One who chose to woo rather than compel.

It is we who must respond to His love by willingly trusting Him enough to accept and surrender to His will and to His ways, knowing that love, and not control, is at the root of all of His thoughts and plans for us - Jeremiah 29:11.

I pray for us all that God will give to us a revelation of His love for us; I pray that we would be humble enough to admit that this world is too complex to figure out on our own and would rather trust God’s judgement of it; above all I pray that with deep love for God in our hearts we would surrender the choice of the good we do and the evil we must refrain from doing to the wisdom of God and the leading of His Holy Spirit in Jesus name!

Chinwe Onwuchekwa
WORLD REVIVE MINISTRIES
Web: www.worldrevive.org
Email: [email protected]
© 19th July 2021