It is not unusual to hear messages in our churches exhorting us to give ourselves away to God. The theme of total surrender is perennial in the pulpit, as indeed it should be. One of the categorical imperatives of the Christian walk is to allow our Master to have all of who we are. Sadly it is also not unusual for believers to experience great difficulty in this yielding to the \u201cownership\u201d of God. Those who have such resistance often berate themselves for what they perceive to be their own stubborn self-centeredness. But this is not always the whole story. Could it be that part of the problem is that we do not realize this total giving of ourselves to Him has been preceded by our Creator\u2019s own total giving of Himself to us?<\/p>\n
I do not think it necessarily presumptuous or rash for a child of God to say, \u201cGod is mine\u201d in the deepest and most appropriate sense of the phrase. Why wouldn\u2019t we make such a statement when other sermons affirm that God delights in giving and that in giving us Jesus He gave us His all? The Father has not been called \u201cthe Lover of our souls\u201d without good reason. In the Person of Christ He has not only loved us fully and perfectly, but given Himself to us in those ways as well. Our union with God is described in the Scripture in terms of marriage. To love your spouse is to give yourself to that spouse and the giving is returned in a healthy union. If it is this way with the human bond between man and wife how much more must it be in the union which both inspires and supercedes it in priority and magnitude?<\/p>\n
This does not, of course, mean that we \u201cown\u201d God in the sense of controlling Him. This is why I just referred to the \u201cdeepest and most appropriate sense of the phrase\u201d when describing a Christian\u2019s relationship with their Lord. This love between the Creator and His finest creation is indeed a two-way street, however it is not reciprocal in the sense of our having equal power or mastery over God. While it might seem paradoxical, we have \u201cpossession\u201d of Him, but in that possession we do not in any way have control over Him. God would not be God if we did.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this can best be explained by another human relationship, that between parent and child. A true parent would not think twice about sacrificing his or her life to physically save a son or daughter from death. How much more then does the Parent of parents love us? The bloodstained cross of Calvary provides the answer. Jesus saved us from spiritual death through a sacrifice inconceivably greater than any mortal parent could ever make. At Golgotha the Creator of the Universe gave Himself to us. Think about that for a moment. Through Jesus, God\u2019s love, more, God\u2019s very Self, belongs to those who receive Him! However like a human parent, God still rightfully rules His household. His children possess Him but, at the same time, remain subservient to Him. No human analogy can completely explain this mysterious combination of possessing God while remaining submissive to Him. But to receive it is to know the peace that passes understanding and an enduring joy.<\/p>\n
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As we are willing to open ourselves to a deeper knowledge of the One who desires to be both Father and Bridegroom to our souls we will begin to find it easier to surrender our lives to Him. The Bible tells us that we love because He first loved us. In the same way we can give ourselves to God once we come to know that he long ago gave Himself so fully to us<\/p>\n
Copyright by Shea Oakley<\/p>\n
All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is not unusual to hear messages in our churches exhorting us to give ourselves away to God. The theme of total surrender is perennial in the pulpit, as indeed it should be. One of the categorical imperatives of the Christian walk is to allow our Master to have all of who we are. Sadly… <\/p>\n