Happy Tuesday!

James 4:7 “Give yourselves completely to God.”

Wow! There is an unpopular and really difficult directive to follow. For God to do His work in us and to fulfill His purpose in each of us everything must begin with surrender. God asks for each part of our life to be laid at His feet. When we lay all at His feet - our joys, sorrows, pain and suffering, victories and defeats, the past and the present, regrets and fears and courage, then God can do His work in us and ultimately fulfill His purpose in us and through us for the furthering of His kingdom.

Our first act as believers is worship. Remember when you first knew of God’s love through Jesus? I remember. The first thing I did was worship God in song, after which I prayed for forgiveness and then I told someone what God had done for me. The heart of worship is surrender. I am reminded of the song we sing, “I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you, all about you, Jesus.” When we surrender in worship to God then we must be willing to give up our need to be in control and just worship the Father with an open heart. When we worship with an open heart then the Holy Spirit is present not only with us, but within us and we come to know God in close relationship.

James knew that for God to do His best work in us that we must become like Jesus. The only way to become like Jesus is to surrender ourselves completely to God just as Jesus did in the garden. Jesus emptied out His life in total surrender to His Father. When we empty out our lives in surrender to God then God can fill us with Himself in the power of the Holy Spirit.

I think I have shared this with you before, but the battle was not won on the cross. The battle was won in the garden when Jesus surrendered Himself to God’s plan. Jesus said, Father, take this cup of suffering from Me is if it is Your will, but if this plan is what is needed to fulfill your purpose then I surrender. I surrender the pain and humiliation over to You until Your purpose is fulfilled in Me.

Where are our gardens? Where do we do battle for control? Are our gardens in the bank, in our computers, in our phones, in our jobs or unemployment or in our families? Where and what do we need to surrender over to God so that His purpose can be fulfilled in each of us? Jesus surrendered His will over to the Father including His death on the cross to fulfill His purpose for our lives. His battle was won in the garden. And victory was claimed on the cross.

Where do we fight our battles? And where is victory claimed? Just throwing it out there…

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes, count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you all so very much, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.