The Surrendered Saviour

[hope you would spare some time to read this.. =)]

From eternity past, through all of time, and through all of eternity future, Jesus' life was, is, and always will be, one of absolute surrender.

John 6:38 - "I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of Him who sent me."

It was Good Friday yesterday.. Was a pretty normal day for me; went to work. And at night, went to Infuse. They showed the movie The Passion Of The Christ (half of it).. I've only watched a few scenes from the movie, very long ago.. So it was something fresh for me.. Watching the pain He went through and thinking how much he suffered, I cannot imagine how it must have been... It's true that NO one could ever have such love.. And it compels me to follow Him even more closely..

These few weeks, I have learnt alot about surrender.. And if there's anyone to make an example of in this area, it's Jesus himself.. He was 100percent God yet 100percent human.. And because of that, he struggled too.. But His desire to do the will of God enabled Him to go through all the suffering and pain that we could be saved..

If you say you love God, are you then willing to surrender to His will? Some of us think that loving God and surrendering are two very different things.. But the truth is, love = surrender.. For when you truly love a person, you would surrender all for that person... Do we love God this way? Every day of our lives, are we surrendering our life, our body, our tongue, our time, our possessions, our mind, our will, our affections, our relationships and ourselves to Him?

For example:

Do we live with the conscious realization that all our time belongs to God, or have we merely reserved a portion of our time for the 'spiritual' category of our lives?
Are we morally pure - what we see, what we think, what we do, where we go, what we listen to, what we say?
Do we treat any of our possessions as if they were ours rather than God's?
Are we disciplining our minds to get to know God and His word better?
Are we wasting our mind on worldly knowledge or pursuits that do not have eternal, spiritual value?
Do we constantly seek to know and to do the will of God in the practical, daily matters of life?
Are we allowing anyone or anything other than Christ to control our emotions and responses?
Do we love God more than we love ourselves? Do we seek His interests, His reputation, and His pleasure above our own?
Is there any part of ourselves - our plans, relationships, possessions, emotions, career, future - that we are knowingly holding back from God?

Many a time, we expect God to answer our prayers. We expect Him to grant us our heart's desires. We expect Him to do this and that... Rarely do we bow the knee and say 'Yes Lord I surrender all to You. Do what You will'.

It is never easy to be fully surrendered to Him.. But that doesn't give us a reason NOT to try.. After all, radical love is when we are willing to surrender to Him.. And that means; even if things do not go the way you want it to; even though it will be painful; even if you will not understand; Surrender... After all, He is God... It's time we stop living for ourselves and start giving our all to Him...

For this is what I'm glad to do
It's time to live a life of love that pleases You
And I will give my all to You
Surrender everything I have and follow You
I'll follow You