Why do we do what we do? People seem strange when we don’t understand the life we live. We are all shaped by the life we live. Some people are built by their environment while others have been forged by their what they’ve been through. The wise look into all of this and learn that we are not meant to stand alone.
Emotions we carry from living can cause us to be destructive even to our own selves. It is part of life. But when God calls us and we acknowledge Him, we may get distracted from the original calling to other things. Along the way we may hear things we agree with, which can make us spiritually jaded because results vary from what we’ve been hearing.
10:4, being diligent can make us rich. God’s word is full of wisdom. This proverb, I thought it was about money when I first read it. But, God’s wisdom we won’t find anywhere but in the Bible and among the people who have surrendered to God. Surrendering is easier said than done, even if we have failed our whole lives.
In pursuit of God, some fall away and quit. There are some who endure and learn important lessons; one of them being that, borrowed faith will disappoint in the end. People of faith begin by believing what we heard from someone talking about Jesus Christ (Yeshuah Messiah). We believed what we heard and wanted to know more. That is foundation of faith. But if we don’t act on faith, then we won’t connect with God on a deeper level.
If our faith doesn’t lead us into wanting to know what God said for ourselves, we won’t get very far. When people burn out and quit they tend to blame church folks because they don’t understand the church are all works in progress. We make mistakes and have bad habits and stumble at times. But if we endure in the faith, God teaches us out of His word.
What does that mean, out of His word? As we study the Bible, the Holy Spirit counsels us, and the Lord teaches us what the words mean. He also teaches us how to properly apply the words in the Bible, if we believe and spend time in the word and speak to the Lord, we say we believe in.
God said it plainly in Jeremiah 29:13 to the elders, “you will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart”. Believing is foundational. Doubts are natural throughout the life of faith. Doubts come and go like trouble. But as we believe and seek God, His truth is revealed to us, and the Lord prunes in us the desire to walk in His way.
Our surrender is in continually growing closer to God, which I know I had questions about what that entailed. To be clear, if we don’t believe in our hearts that God exists, we get nothing. Listening to sermons is good, but we must believe the truth. If we are to grow to be like Christ, we must dip our toes into the life of faith.
Dipping our toes in isn’t just showing up to church on Saturday or Sunday. It is being willing to open your Bible often, and then being willing to apply what you read about in your living. And the one who has the boldness to talk to God and ask questions and wait expectantly and patiently, gets more. Jesus (Yeshuah), said “If we ask and believe then we get what we asked for”; there is a lot of opinion about this, but I’m crazy enough to believe the Lord instead of the proselyting mouths.
When we believe, our faith starts a battle for our hearts and minds. The battlefield is inside us. Mental health and all that jazz! Often, those who don’t endure blast the church and church people, validly sometimes. What I learned as a backslider who had to be brought back by Lord Yeshuah (Jesus) is this; mechanical studying of the Bible and mechanical church attendance or playing along gets us nowhere.
We are all in some way shaped by cultures developed in society, our experiences and such. Life hits us all hard. But the people who believe and endure enough to righteousness are reshaped by God. Bible tells us that it is God who does the work in us and we become new creatures (Philippians 2:13 & 2 Corinthians 5:17). The more we understand this, the easier surrender becomes.
We can’t surrender ourselves! Surrender is giving in to the work that God is doing in our hearts and choosing the fruits that develop as we live. That is, applying the commands of God to our livity. Easier said than done, of course, because it takes practice. Most of the time surrender requires denying our passions for vengeance or doing things we really want to do. It is not always easy to figure out, which is why we need Jesus in order to surrender.
Those who endure life and church hurt in order to mature in the Spirit and take a deeper dive into the life of faith finds out that God sustains us in our faith. It isn’t us. But Jesus Christ the righteous who pours into us by way of His Father, and our Father, God.
The Bereans found in Acts 17:11, were given as examples, often searching scriptures for themselves after hearing sermons. Our habits shaped by scripture and commune with God can reshape everything about us. Surrender also has a way of reshaping habits and thought patterns and our responses. Nothing happens overnight.
Surrender is not about church attendance or mechanical Bible reading. It is careful study involving the Lord and speaking to Him in prayers. It is also keeping our minds on His word as often as life allows. You wouldn’t believe what goes on in the mind when we’re not paying attention to our own minds.
What does surrender look like? A believer who makes it a habit to take the Lord with them as they leave, spiritually (In the minds and hearts), learns that their minds submit to God faster than a believer who has wild living in mind. It takes sustained practice and refusal to go backwards. Worth it, because as we live, we see the mistakes we make and the decisions we make that God has to rescue us from every single day. Bless you if you are perfect, I can only tell you about the times God has to rescue me.
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