Giving Up

"I love You
All of my hope is in You
Jesus Christ, take my life
Take all of me."

~Hillsong United




Every day. Everyday there is a battle that wages inside me. The "new creation" that I am since placing faith in Jesus must fight the sinful nature that I was born with and still feed at times to this day. This is no metaphorical happening that represents what I imagine. No, I know it is there because I see its results and I can feel each
victory, regardless of which side won it. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 7: "For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing." I know exactly what it is that I am called to do on the daily basis, and yet on the daily basis I fail miserably in complete obedience. Why is it so hard?? The answer has already been written. "I fail miserably." In myself, I don't have the ability to do right. Even Paul said that. Then what's the point of being a new creature? Herein lies one of the most beautiful paradoxes that this shattered world contains. While the Holy Spirit makes us "new" in Himself, the only way we are to ever do right is to immediately offer that new self back to God, saying "Take my life! Take all of me!" You see, what the newness does is that it moves in us (if we allow it) to take that action. Before accepting the redeeming grace of Jesus we cannot yield our lives to Him. All we can do is ask Him to rescue us from the Kingdom of darkness, and precisely at that moment He not only rescues us, but He transforms us into brand new people.

I have trouble giving up things, even to God. That in itself shows how powerful sin is. I have nothing to lose and everything to gain when I lose everything of my own accord so that I might gain nothing other than what the Savior gives. I cannot do anything to further Christ's Kingdom if I do not daily take up my cross and follow Him. It will mean harder times than I care to know about right now. But it will also mean a firmer Hand of escape from those times than I can even fathom at this moment. All of my hope must be put in the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and the Redeemer of my heart and soul. The One who is Love.

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the One who would turn aside His wrath, taking away our sins."

~1 John 4:10