Grace Awakening

The process is rather simple and natural.  A pond or small lake is devoid of a source of moving water and becomes stagnate.  Decomposing plant matter begins to suspend in the water and then to settle on the bottom of the water.  Sphagnum moss begins to creep inward from the shoreline until the water is completely overwhelmed.  In time, the once living lake surrenders to terrestrialization.

There is a call to the people of the church today that largely goes unanswered.  We do our best to resist the call to wholly surrender to the One who calls us because it requires that we surrender our most precious possession – ourselves.  We are often keeping back a portion or most or all of who we are from being what God desires us to be.  Yet, whether we realize it or not, we are surrendering to one god or another.

As the bog has no choice but to surrender to the encroaching moss and settling peat we have no choice but to surrender to something.  As the peat settles and chokes the life from the bog waters so does sin in our lives.  Without thought we surrender slowly to sin until it has grown feet and yards from the shore and the source of life has been choked off.  If we do not wake from our spiritual slumber in time we will soon be awakened to realize how much has been surrendered and lost to sin.  It then becomes necessary for radical change to occur that will change the course of sin in our lives.

On the other hand we can see the surrender of the bog to the inevitable as how we surrender to the work of God in our lives.  When we surrender completely to God it is something that occurs both instantly and gradually.  In the sense of the instant change salvation is like that.  When we bow before the Cross and come under the blood there is the instant and complete change of family.  Instead of God’s enemy, we become His Child.  There are also other times when the change of surrender will seem to be instantaneous, but it is the work of the Spirit in our lives over time.  If we are completely surrendered to being what God desires us to be, we will be open to the lessons of life that God teaches us and uses to bring us closer to being holy and pure before Him.  While there is pain involved in surrender it is necessary to make us and mold us into the image of His Son.  That is the ultimate goal of surrender – to be a “Little Christ,” a Christian.  Surrendering to the work that God will do in us admits to the suffering that will be needed to break down the barriers to complete surrender.  It will sometimes require the slow, painful process of the Crucible and at times it will involve the soaring, joyous lessons of the Classroom.  But the goal of surrender is always that of maturity, the goal of being like Christ.

I believe that the greatest struggle to our surrender is the one who stares back at us in the mirror.  All too often we want what we want or we try to dictate to God the terms of our growth.  We pout, tantrum, whine, and blubber until we get what we want.  When we get what we want and find out that it is not what we want we pout, tantrum, whine, blubber, and blame God for giving us something that is not satisfactory.  The only true and lasting satisfaction we will obtain is the humble and complete surrender of our hearts to Holy God to shape and mold as He desires.  To lose who we are in Christ – to surrender our wills, our dreams, our hopes – is actually a great opportunity to be much more than what we can imagine.

As with the bog, the work of surrender in our lives is a process that gradually occurs in our lives as we live daily in surrender to God.  As with the bog, surrender brings into our lives new and unique growth that would have never occurred had we not surrendered to the call of God to surrender.  Surrender requires that I give up who I am to the only One who can made me into what I truly ought to be.  It is difficult.  It is daily.  It is necessary.

mrc