Full Surrender
Toni Babcock
“I the LORD hath spoken it and will do it.” (Ezekiel 22:14 KJV)
Perhaps nothing frustrates the grace of God more than to insist on doing God’s work for him. This is quite impossible of course, but it doesn’t keep us from trying.
We naturally want to do things our way - but Jesus operates from a completely different perspective.
“I can of mine own self do nothing,” he told his disciples (John 5:30a KJV).
Jesus often spoke of his absolute surrender to His Father.
“The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do,” (John 5:19 KJV) he told his disciples.
And before He went to the cross he prayed,
“…Not my will, but thine be done,” (Luke 22:42b KJV).
Absolute dependence was a true mark of His oneness with the Father.
The process of allowing God to be all and to do all in our lives is key to our absolute surrender as well. One pastor suggested we start with single acts of surrender and learn to live by the daily refrain of “nothing of myself”.
Faith will rise, casting aside all confidence in the flesh as we wait with expectancy for the Spirit of God to fill us and use us as we experience our union with Christ.
The Apostle Paul’s great desire was to know Christ,
“and the power his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10 KJV)
If we would live like Jesus and be filled with His Holy Spirit, dying to our own selves is an integral part of the process.
Toni M. Babcock is author of Reflections from the Heart in Light of the Gospel of Jesus, and The Stone Writer, Christian Fiction for Young Readers and Teens. Contact
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