We can do nothing without Jesus. As long as we presume that we can, we will live a life of disappointment and failure. Our best effort on our best day will fall short of the smallest thing we can do through the power of Christ. Until we fully surrender every aspect of our lives to Him, we will have no idea what we can truly accomplish.
Most of us have grand designs and dreams for our lives. We are taught to strive to be whatever we should desire. Whatever we might accomplish in this world on our own will be tempered by a gnawing feeling that we are still missing something. Money can buy neither love nor acceptance. For a true follower of Jesus, worldly achievement will never fulfill the deepest desires of our souls. The only way to succeed in life is to surrender all that we are to Him. We have to let Him know that He can have everything that He has blessed us with: friends, family and all the accumulated “stuff”. Nothing means anything apart from Jesus.
When we surrender everything to Him we will begin to see the world in a new way. The things we used to find interesting or important will no longer have any hold on us. We will start to see the world as Jesus does. Instead of selfishly devoting our time to things that bring us pleasure and satisfaction, we will become people who take pleasure in doing things that bring glory to God. We are called to glorify Him in everything that we do. This daunting task is possible only to those who have surrendered their lives to Him. Surrender means no longer living for ourselves in any way. Everything we do must be with Him in mind; no more self-serving endeavors, no more mindless drifting, no more wasting time. As Thoreau wrote, As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.” Indeed, any time not spent serving Christ is time that another soul potentially dies without knowledge of Jesus. The world is dying all around us; we have no time to waste. If we don’t show them the love of Christ, then who will?
We have to let go of the lie. We have to realize that we have no control of our life. We are either ruled by Christ or led by Satan. Jesus didn’t leave room for any sort of gray area. We are for Him or we are against Him. If we are truly for Him then we will fully surrender to Him; this is what He demands. For too long we have been content to give lip service to our devotion to Christ but live our lives as we see fit. Time has run out for Sunday morning Christians. What the world needs are Christ followers who have surrendered their lives fully to Jesus, people whose sole purpose is to reflect the love and glory of God to the world. We are called to be the Kingdom of God here on earth. We cannot be the Kingdom until we let go of all that we hold dear; we must drop everything until all we have left is Jesus and His power.
By surrendering to Him and admitting that we are powerless without Him, we will begin to live the life we were intended to live. Let us seek His power to first change ourselves and then let His glory shine through so that we might demonstrate His love to everyone and positively affect change in our families, our neighborhoods, our cities, our state, our country and ultimately our world. It all begins when we surrender our own lives to Him. From that small choice, that one conscious decision, we begin to fulfill our mission. Through His power we will change the world.