Matt. 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
As a teenage, my mom would say, “pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” She meant I had to find the grit and determination inside myself if I wanted to get the job done. It’s actually a comical metaphor -since obviously it’s quite impossible to lift yourself off the ground by pulling on your bootstraps.
How often do we wear ourselves out trying to please God with our efforts?
We accept God’s gift of salvation realizing there is nothing we can do to pay the penalty for our sins. Then we scurry through each day trying to do more, be more and win God’s approval by our hard work.
God loves you not because of anything you do or don’t do. He loves you because you are you.
Just like salvation, sanctification or the process of becoming more like Christ is from God. We need to stop trying to be good and realize we can’t please God by sheer hard work. Quite the opposite, actually. We have to stop trying to live on our own power and start letting the Holy Spirit live in us.
This doesn’t mean we can sit around and eat cheese puffs all day. But, rather than making my plans, my agenda and my to-do list, I find out where God is working and join Him.
I don’t have to fight. I just have to stand firm and let God.
Watchman Nee describes surrender this way:
“If the general manager of the company told you that you were no longer needed by the company the following month and that you were fired, what would you do?” He said that the only thing he could do would be to resign.
Then I asked, “Suppose the next month came, the new manager arrived, and you transferred everything to him. What would you do if a buyer came to you and asked, `Manager, what kind of new fabric do you have? What is its price? How much do you think this price will go up in two days?’
” The brother answered, “If it happened a few days before the new manager arrived, I would make some calculations and find out what the company had in stock and how much it needed to stock up. But if I had already transferred everything to the new manager, I would have nothing more to do. All I could do would be to watch others work.”
This is letting go and surrendering. This is what it means to be crucified with Christ. We have to say to the Lord, “I am not resigning because I am capable. I am resigning because I cannot stand it any longer. I am not capable of doing anything. I cannot manage anything any longer. This is why I have to resign.
Dear God, Thank you for loving me beyond what I can grasp. Thank you for your Spirit dwelling in me. I realize that if I’m running with all my strength in a race I didn’t sign up for, even if I’m first I won’t receive the prize. I surrender my plans and ask you to show me where you are working so I can join you. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Faith Step: What one thing can you do today align your day with God’s plans? You can leave a comment in the box below.
I can stop scheming and wait for God to tell me what to do with my dreams, my kids, my responsibilities. Love this!
me too. So hard and yet so easy, isn’t it? Just doing the thing I can do today and not worrying about all the tomorrows.