Surrender Self-Determination

Love Jesus. Let him be himself with you. Allow his life to fill yours.

Every day, give him your life to be filled with his. This is part of what I now pray,

every morning:

Lord Jesus, I give my life to you today, to live your life.

Of course, this assumes that you are willing to surrender your self-determination. You’ll find it hard to receive his life in any great measure if you as the branch keep running off on your own, leaving the Vine behind in order to do life as you please. Honestly, I think this is why we accept such a bland Jesus, or a distant Jesus — he doesn’t intrude on our plans. I said earlier that one of the most bizarre realities of the religious church is how loving Jesus is considered optional, extra credit. The same sort of madness has crept in with the idea that you can be a Christian and hold on to your self- determination.

And how is that going, by the way?

If you are not drawing your life from Jesus, it means you are trying to draw it from some other source. I’ll guarantee you that it’s not working.

Jesus was simply stating a fact of nature when he said, “Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it” (Matt. 16:25). Grab for life and it falls through your fingers like sand; give your life away to God, and you will be a person his life can fill. If you want the real deal, if you want to experience the lush, generous, unquenchable, unstoppable life of Jesus in you and through you, then surrender your self-determination.

Lord Jesus, I give my life to you today, to live your life.

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