WELCOME TO GOD FOCUS THIS MORNING

The title of today’s episode is: I SURRENDER ALL

There is much to be said about the lyrics of old hymns. These words were inspired by God and peoples relationship with Him. We sing, “I surrender all.” My question is do we really surrender all or are we holding back. This song was written by a man in the late 1800’s. His name was Judson Van DeVenter. He had a passion for art and a passion for God. He was called to preach and wrestled with what to do. One night he came to the conclusion that he had to leave the art world behind and preach the gospel. He wrote the lyrics to “I surrender all.”

This old song and many others have been sang among congregations for years. But do we actually listen to the words. “I surrender all” other phrases like “all to him I freely give”. What are we surrendering? What are we giving him? Are we singing words or do we mean them? Do we fully surrender to Him?

I think at times we do fully surrender. But then over time we take back pieces of ourselves from God. It is a daily decision to do the right thing. It is a daily surrender.

Luke 9: 23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

If we surrender to the will of God each morning and ask for his leading our day will turn out differently than if we get up and allow our flesh to dictate our day. We are sacrificing our fleshly desires for the cause of Christ. That doesn’t necessarily mean sin. Maybe we really want to sleep instead of going to church. Maybe we want to watch Netflix instead of reading our Bible. But we crucify those things and do what will strengthen our spirit man. It will make us more useful to encourage someone else.

For example, what if a friend needs a word of encouragement but by skipping that reading for a clean movie you don’t have the right words.

Other song titles come to mind like Amazing Grace. We know that his grace is beyond anything that we could imagine. Therefore his grace that he gives is amazing.

Many come from the scriptures. Like “His Eye Is On The Sparrow.” It reminds us that God will take care of us. He takes care of the small sparrow, how much more should we trust Him to take care of us.

At Calvary, teaches us to not make light of the great gift of the cross. His mercy was given freely to us. We found freedom at Calvary.

Because He Lives we can face tomorrow. If he had not risen, we would have no hope. Because of the work of the cross we do not have a reason to fear.

We all know that it takes prayer and communication with God to stay on the right path. But how many of us look at prayer like the song, “Sweet Hour Of Prayer”. How many even pray for an hour anymore? I have been guilty of drive by prayers. Those are the ones we say to God in passing. The emergency room prayers, we pray only when there is a desperate need. God wants us to sit in his presence and listen for his voice as well as make known our requests.

In His presence is where we find the strength to face each day. I Surrender All, because of his Amazing Grace. I know that His Eye Is On The Sparrow because of what was done At Calvary. We have Blessed Assurance that Jesus is our Lord.

When life throws us hard things and it seems like everything is crumbling to the ground we can call on Jesus. We know he is greater than the hard things we face. It seems like trouble always comes in bunches. I don’t know if that is true or if we are more sensitive to the things going on because of the stress of the biggest problem.

Jesus has the answer, but it seems like he is not going to share the answer at times. We have to remember he is the master of perfect timing. Think about all the pieces he has to move to make your miracle happen. Sometimes it takes time for all the pieces to fall into place.

He will work it all out in his time. It is our job to surrender all to him. Lord, I surrender this issue to you. Lord, I surrender my will to you. Lord, I surrender my fear of how things will work out. (That is a Big One). We give God something, then we turn around and worry about it. Let me remind you, worry is not faith.

But His mercy is new every day. He anxiously waits for us to wake and talk with him. He wants our fellowship. He is our faithful friend and will not allow the enemy to overtake us. As long as we stand and do not wave the white flag of surrender to the enemy. They only way satan wins is for us to give up. If we stand strong and resist the devil he will have to flee.

We cannot be fully surrendered to God if we are walking by our flesh. It is when we get into our human nature that we get into trouble. If we are not careful, we will find ourselves listening to the whispering of the enemy. This is why it is important to surrender fully to Christ Jesus.

I choose today to serve Jesus and follow him. Every day is a new day, a clean slate to start fresh. If we messed up yesterday, we ask for his awesome forgiveness and press on today.

Heb12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Thinking about the work of the cross and what a price Jesus paid for each of us. We should all be saying with conviction and purpose, “I Surrender All To You Jesus.”

Until next time,

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE AND KEEP YOUR GOD FOCUS

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