Wednesday, September 28, 2022

 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022


Psalm 71

Ezra 1

Colossians 1:21-29


...everyone whose spirit God had stirred...


Completely surrendering ourselves to Jesus is scary. “Better the devil you know”, and we know that the devil may wound us and lead us to death, but at least we are allowed that one vice we want to keep. Surrendering to Jesus means a complete surrender: Paul says we are reconciled to God through death – the complete destruction of everything we were before.


This surrendering is the only way Jesus would have us, however. He is our Lord, not our business partner. And if we want to know where God wants us to go, He will only tell us if we are available for the job. If there is any part of us where we dig in our heels and tell God “anything but that bit”, God won't bother taking anything at all. Completely surrendering ourselves to Jesus is scary: consider Paul, suffering for the sake of the gospel. Consider the Jews in exile, who had to pack up everything (again!) and go back to their barren homeland and rebuild it from scratch.


Completely surrendering ourselves to Jesus is the only way to life and joy. Jesus is the image of the invisible God, and God is light, in whom there is no darkness at all. When our Lord takes control, He is gentle with us, kind, patient, holding us close. Any troubles we face He turns into opportunities for us to grow and become more like Him. This is why Paul can rejoice in his sufferings: it is in the service of our good Lord from whom all blessings flow. On top of that, Paul knows he is in the right place, doing the right thing, because the Holy Spirit of God has told him: and the Holy Spirit's voice is most clearly heard when we surrender our own interests in favour of God's interests. God does stir our spirit, often, to tell us important things, things to help us, comfort us, and save us. We hear these stirrings by being as close as possible to the One who speaks them. His name is Jesus: and He wants all of us.



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