Surrender

As the Christian pursuits her goal, she learns that she must offer up her own will and to accept the Lord's will with joy. To do this, complete trust is needed and it is by building altars that Much-Afraid abandons herself. Before every big step in her journey, she builds an altar and her offering is consumed. The biggest sacrifice that is asked by the Shepherd is at the last part of her journey. It is that of offering up the promise that she received when He called her to follow Him as well as the flower of "natural human love and desire growing in her heart[.] " After this offering, nothing is left in Much-Afraid but her desire to do the will of the Shepherd. The times of purification are over and she is finally ready to enter the Kingdom of Love. It is therefore by following the path indicated by her King, by offering up her will and by trusting Him completely that the Bride can arrive to the threshold of the High Places.** http://www.angelfire.com/nm/AndI/HindsFeet.html

"Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? (Matthew 16:24-26 MSG)

Surrender don't come naturally to me
I'd rather fight You for something
I don't really want, than
Take what You give that I need

And I beat my head against so many walls
Now I'm falling down, falling on my knees

Hold me Jesus
I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace
Hold me Jesus
Cause I'm shaking like a leaf
You have been King of my glory
Won't You be my Prince of Peace*

I think about a poor, Jewish peasant girl who had an angel tell her she'd be the mother of the Son of God. If something like that happened to me, I'm not sure what my response would be. But hers was simple:

I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me just as you say. (Luke 1:38 MSG)

What was it about her spirit, her faith, her trust in God that led her to so easily say YES to such a huge request by God? Being unwed and pregnant at that time could quickly lead to divorce from her betrothed, societal shunning, and even death. So, why could she so easily (at least as the writer of Luke records it) surrender to God's will?

Where are the places I still need to lay down my will, to let Jesus be in the driver's seat of my life? What are the things I think or say or feel or...whatever... that I need to surrender on the altar so that my heart and soul can be lined up with Christ's? It seems like He keeps finding things in me that I need to clean out of that back closet of my soul - junk he says to give to him so that he can replace that junk with His love and peace.

²⁸"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11 NIV)

Take my burdens, my junk, the stuff that impairs me from being able to follow you

Show me your way

Less of me, more of you

Help me surrender and trust you

Be my Prince of Peace

Amen

* "Hold Me Jesus" by Rich Mullins

** from a review of "Hinds Feet on High Places" by Hannah Hurnard