Thursday, October 24, 2013

How do you give God your life?

I've heard all my life that I need to "Give God my life". And I would say "Yes, that's something I'd like to do." but how on earth do I do it?
Can I just say "God, here's my life?"
It is, in a sense, just that easy. The problem is when you say that and then you sit down to watch something Jesus wouldn't watch. Or you go participate in an activity He would hate.
Unfortunately, when we offer our lives, we seem to immediately forget the idea of "No take-backs!"

For many years I desperately wanted to be used by God. I looked into several things I thought He would like, and nothing came of them. I did other things and they succeeded, just not nearly as quickly as I would have. Other things, happened quicker than I expected and took me completely by surprise.

Overall, I vehemently objected to anything that looked like "doing nothing".

And I made a lot of mistakes.

This past year, deciding on India has been the easiest decision I've ever had someone else make for me.

I knew I was going somewhere.. but not where.
I prayed God would show me where.
God had the words India come out of my mouth.
I prayed if India was it, He'd confirm it.
God confirmed it, but we didn't know where in India.
We started praying for an exact location in India, God gave us "Pastor John"
Who is not only going to be our exact destination, but the help we never imagined in order to make it there.

In all this time there was no rushing, not anxiety as to "what am I going to decide to do for God" just a simple "wait... God will tell me."

All I had to do was be still, be quiet, and listen.

I play the piano with my 2 1/2 yr old Precious. She sticks out her pointy finger and I cover her hand and finger with my own, and we play a song together. It never starts out easily. She's always too excited to be playing. She yanks her hand from me sometimes to pound the keys, she'll keep control of her hand and while I"m trying to move it her hand is stiff because she's trying to hit another note instead of moving on, sometimes she just wants to use her whole hand instead of the one finger I'm intending to control.

It usually takes a couple of attempts before she finally settles down from the excitement that has her yanking around, and allows me to simply "have" her hand and her finger. And we play. That's when her sweet voice almost always announces "I'm playing a song mommy!" 

She doesn't say that while we struggle. Even though we're hitting notes and mangling our way through a song... she doesn't ever say "I'm playing a song" until she's given over her hand. Not until the melody becomes sweeter as she allows me to play through her tiny little finger.

I learn so much from watching my children. God is not like me. His love is different, His thoughts are different, His ways are MUCH different. But I still think I get a glimpse of Him, and of how to be a good child of God, by watching my daughters.

I recorded the following video several days ago, almost immediately thinking about how to write this post. It wasn't until a bit later that I realized the significance of the specific song that we ended up playing.

You want to give your life to Jesus? Say the words "All to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him; In His presence daily live."
And mean it.
But be aware, that "all" means, well, it means ALL: Children, family, time, energy, love, hopes, dreams, hobbies, money, pride, peoples good opinions, and so much more.
But when you let go, and you simply rest in His presence, confident that He will open the door to the next destination, decision, direction that He wants you in and that all you'll have to do is listen to Him in order to find it? Let me tell you friends, it's a pretty sweet spot to be in. And you find that the important things you put 2nd to God, only get better, richer, sweeter, happier. And you'll also find that the unimportant things tend to just fade away. And life becomes more full and wonderful than ever before.


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