Every Tuesday night at 7pm, I go to my friend Kaylee’s house for something called Family Night. At Family Night, about 18 young adults plus Kaylee’s parents, gather around the table in fellowship to eat some good food (shoutout to Kaylee’s mom, Mrs.Melinda for cooking the BEST food) and talk about Jesus! Every Family Night, Kaylee’s dad comes up with a question to start us off with (shoutout to Mr.Steve for getting super creative with some of these questions haha). I vividly remember the first time I ever went to family night, the question was “what comes to your mind when you think of the word surrender?” Everyone had such good answers! Someone said letting go of your plans and receiving Gods plan for you with open hands. Someone else said giving your life to the Lord. Another person said just giving it all to Jesus and walking in freedom, not allowing past mistakes to hold you down. One person said something I’ve never even thought of, which was just a white flag waving in the air in the midst of chaos.Then we started talking about how people in China die everyday for their faith (which is a whole other topic lol). I began to think of how each one of these definitions were different, yet each one should apply to our lives.
As Christs followers, we should be willing to lay it all down for a life with Him. We are not on earth to live and please ourselves, but to please the Lord and save souls, bringing people to Jesus so they can have eternal life with Him. That’s what this life is about. We are here to further advance the Kingdom of Heaven! If your not advancing His Kingdom, your hindering it.
But, surrender is optional. It’s not the easiest route, and it’s definitely not the most chosen. Sometimes surrendering everything to someone you can’t even see can be a scary thought. But we can’t ignore this idea of surrender forever. There will be a day where we meet Jesus. We have to begin thinking about that now. Not choosing to surrender can lead to lots of destruction and brokenness. So as I’m wrapping up with this blog, even though it’s kind of short haha, I want to leave you with this: God can never fully use you until you give it all to Him.
“Then He said to them all, “If anyone wants to come Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” -Luke 9:23
