Along the same lines, a friend of mine once said, "Any time there is a chronic lack of victory in some area, you can almost always be certain that there is a lack of surrender somewhere." I think he was right. Too often when we come to Jesus, we come thinking more about what He will do for us, than about what we will do for Him. One of the ways this is seen is in the too common partial surrender that comes because we surrender what is convenient to surrender, and not everything. But victory ONLY comes when the surrender is complete. So we should ask ourselves the question, to what degree have we truly surrendered everything in our lives? Is there any hidden reserve? Have we been willing to take every area of our life and asked God if it is in His will for us? I think we will find that some of the things we think are so important are the very things that are keeping us from experiencing His joy and victory in our lives. The following somewhat speaks of this. Note especially the third paragraph. "It is through the truth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we are to be sanctified,--transformed into the likeness of Christ. And in order for this change to be wrought in us, there must be an unconditional, whole-hearted acceptance of the truth, an unreserved surrender of the soul to its transforming power. {RH, April 12, 1892 par. 1} Our characters are by nature warped and perverted. Through the lack of proper development they are wanting in symmetry. With some excellent qualities are united objectionable traits, and through long indulgence wrong tendencies become second nature, and many persons cling tenaciously to their peculiarities. Even after they profess to accept the truth, to yield themselves to Christ, the same old habits are indulged, the same self-esteem is manifested, the same false notions entertained. Although such ones claim to be converted, it is evident that they have not yielded themselves to the transforming power of the truth. {RH, April 12, 1892 par. 2} These things are not only harming their own souls, but are misleading others, who look to them as representatives of the truths which they profess to believe. Here we may see why some of our ministers as well as laymen have not greater power. They have not made an entire surrender to God. They do not realize the sinfulness of clinging to their own ways, following their own ideas, which are crude and narrow, and without symmetry. They hold tenaciously to the theory of the truth, and try to present it to others, but it is so beclouded by their own peculiarities that its brightness is obscured; it appears unattractive, and too often is refused." {RH, April 12, 1892 par. 3}
Posted on: Mon, 02 Sep 2013 10:28:25 +0000
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