Take It All!

This seems to be a far too commonly necessary prayer of mine these days: God, please take it all! I wish that this could be one of those one time decisions... and in a sense, it is. When we become a child of God, we have had a change in ownership. We are not our own. He purchased us with His blood and our every breath, thought, emotion... everything is His. The salvation cry is one of complete surrender knowing that the best of our good works cannot meet God's standard. The great news is that we are no longer loved based on what we have done, but rather based on what Christ has done. His perfect obedience is now mine. This is why I feel that this prayer is needed way too often. It's done... He owns all. I just seem to think that I can hold onto bits and pieces sometimes. The reality is that I am holding nothing. It doesn't matter if I think that I am or not... I can't. I come to Him once again asking Him to take everything for the sake of my own heart. It is not because He doesn't own everything already or that I could hold onto something that isn't mine. It's for my sake and mine only that I come to Him humbly admitting my pride in thinking that I have a better plan than He does. I do not. I must plead with Him to graciously not give me my way when it doesn't line up with His.

The sermon this morning was about faith and God's promises. I have somehow failed to notice so many of the places in scripture where God says, "I will..." do this or that. Scripture is full of the history of God's faithfulness. When He says that He will do something, He always does it. He never once has not done what He said He would do. Satan is the master deceiver... He loves to fill our minds with lies about God and His character... maybe that He is slow... or maybe He will never come through... or maybe He didn't really mean what He said... etc. The only description of God as being slow that comes to mind is that He is slow to wrath and abounding in love! We must be so filled with the Spirit that those lies of Satan are instantly taken captive to the obedience of Christ.

I read an article today about a family who has a son named Peter who was in a serious car accident a little over a year ago while heading to mow the lawn for a widow. As they recounted all his (and their) hopes and dreams and see what they have now, I can't imagine how difficult that would be. They have had their hearts so fixed on the Lord during this time and it has been such an incredible encouragement to me. One of the phrases from that article was this: "The message is much more: you do what's right and leave the results to God."

I needed to hear that today. Sometimes we lose sight of the fact that He always answers prayer when He doesn't answer how we want Him to and when we want Him to... but He always answers. It is so important that right now... this very moment... that I do what God instructs me to do with this moment and trust Him for the rest. So, I come again asking Him to take it all, declaring my full trust in His faithfulness to complete what He has started in ways far better than what I could even imagine, and by His grace, letting that trust result in full obedience right now wherever I am.