Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers… In this life of only a few short years – only a “blink” in the eternal scheme of things – I’ve learned quite a few valuable lessons. Some have been life changing; others have been life saving. But one of those valuable lessons that has been both life changing and life saving was learning to discern the difference between a contradiction and a paradox.
We all know that a contradiction is something that has aspects that are illogical or inconsistent with each other, or in other words…both can’t be right. A paradox, however, is a statement, proposition, or situation that seems to be absurd or contradictory, but in fact is, or may be, true. For instance, in the matter of war, victory and surrender are contradictory. But I belong to a recovery program that holds to this fundamental paradox: the only way to win is to surrender. In this case, one depends on the other. Not only is that paradox true in the recovery program, but in order to become the person God created us to be, it is absolutely essential that we grasp the truth of this paradox in this matter as well.
There is a song that I learned in church when I was a child, and it became one of my favorites. It’s title is “I Surrender All”. All to Jesus I surrender; All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live. (Refrain) I surrender all, I surrender all; All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender; Humbly at His feet I bow, Worldly pleasures all forsaken; Take me, Jesus, take me now. (Refrain)
Unfortunately when I was belting out this song in church, I totally missed the message. I was much more interested in picking out harmony notes to go along with the melody than scrutinizing the words. But today when I see those words, I realize the awesome truth and the life saving message contained therein. In fact, this message is the key to becoming the person God created us to be.
Whether we are walking into a recovery room and admitting our powerlessness over whatever we put in “the blank” (alcohol, drugs, women, cars, gambling, pornography, money, power, etc.) or whether we hit our bottom and cry our “God help me”, it all begins with humility. Finally, at that moment, we have come face to face with our own insufficiency and realize we do need help. We are ready to surrender.
The truth is – and none of us realize it, nor do we really care – but at that moment we are experiencing the truth of a powerful promise found in James 4:10: “When we bow down (come in humility) before the Lord and admit our dependence on him, he will lift us up and give us honor.” We have just taken the first step in a process that can change and save our life. I used the word “can” rather than “will” in the previous sentence because whether that step produces the desired end result depends on our willingness to surrender to the process.
There are many reasons people ask for help. In the recovery sense, perhaps it’s a spouse or a boss that has given an ultimatum: “Either YOU get help or we’re through”; or you get a bad medical report with the threat of liver damage; or the police offer you the option of getting help or going to jail. Now it makes sense to you to do this… but just until you get the “monkey” off your back. Unfortunately there is nothing in your thought process about changing YOU. You just want relief from your uncomfortable circumstances and you’re already looking forward to “getting back to life as usual”.
Sometimes it’s not much different in the Spiritual sense. Perhaps your own mortality is becoming more real to you, so you ask yourself this probing question: “What if Bob, the Christian up the street, is right and I’m wrong? Hummm? Fire insurance probably makes sense in this circumstance. So you make a decision to accept Jesus as your Savior, and you feel good about securing your eternal destiny. Yes indeed…forgiveness of my sins and eternal life…this is good! Maybe in your own mind you decide to seal the deal by becoming an avid church-goer, then you even volunteer to serve on the finance committee. But Monday through Saturday it’s pretty much “business as usual”, but truth be told…you’ve been wondering, “why am I not experiencing the ‘abundant life’ and the peace and serenity that Jesus promised “.
In Neil Anderson’s book, “Victory Over the Darkness”, he states that “God’s will for your life is two-fold. First and foremost he wants you to accept his Gift of Grace, Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior; and secondly he wants you to participate in the process of Sanctification – becoming more Christ-like.” This is how we become the person he created us to be; and this is how we become useful in furthering His Kingdom right here and now on this earth.
When we accept God’s Gift of Grace, Jesus Christ immediately becomes our Savior. At that moment we are Justified in God’s eyes because we are in Christ, meaning our sins are forgiven and we’ve inherited eternal life; we now have the indwelling Holy Spirit; we are grafted into God’s family; we are now worthy and acceptable in His sight, not because of anything we did, but because of the ransom paid on our behalf by Jesus at the cross; in God’s eyes we are no longer a sinner but a Saint (sin-free and set aside for a sacred purpose); we are heir to all the promises in the Bible and heir to all the Spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm. Now at this point we have been fully prepared to participate in the process of Sanctification, but as of yet we haven’t taken the first step. And whether we take that first step depends on our willingness to surrender to Jesus as our Lord. (At this point it might be good to look back to paragraph three and focus on what I’ve underlined. This is all part of the Sanctification process.)
No doubt the idea of “surrendering”, or Jesus being Lord (first and foremost) is frightening to most people. Our first thought is, “But what about me. I don’t want to give up my control to anyone or anything.” That’s YOUR human nature talking. But here’s another paradox for ya… it’s about us getting out of the way and letting, or better still, depending on the Holy Spirit to set US free. Romans 12:2-4 addresses this: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his Will really is.” The fact is…God’s Will for your life is so much greater than yours, why should you be afraid. He wants the very best for us, as stated in 2Peter 3-5: “As we know Jesus better, his divine power (Holy Spirit) gives us everything we need for living a Godly life. He has called us to receive his own glory and goodness! And by that same mighty power, he has given us all of his rich and wonderful promises. He has promised that you will escape the decadence all around you caused by evil desires and that you will share in his divine nature. So make every effort to apply the benefits of these promises to your life. Then your faith will produce a life of moral excellence.”
God gave us the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit to do for us what we proved we were “utterly helpless” to do for ourselves. He knows we are living in a fallen world, in these fleshly bodies, and he knows we are no match for the devil. That’s why the walk to sanctification is not done through our own effort, but by us getting out of the way and trusting the Holy Spirit to empower us to become his masterpiece, as referenced in Ephesians 2:10: “For we are now God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so that we can NOW do the good things he planned for us long ago.” A-men!
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My God bless you abundantly,
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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