I praise God for the work He is doing in our
teens! Mia's baptism on Sunday was
amazing and is but one of many ways that God is moving through our
students! What an entrance into
Thanksgiving week! It excites me to no
end when students respond in faith to the Lord's movement in their lives! We have been talking about faith so much in
youth group; in fact, the first third of our year's theme is devoted to
it. A few weeks ago, I wrote about
faith not being a feeling; a subject the teens discussed and learned at the
beginning of our study on "a faith that cannot be shaken." We have since moved to a more difficult
understanding of faith which challenges even the most devout of us. Life is so incredibly difficult! It's like trying to drive a stick shift when
you can't even reach the pedals! We
complain about not being able to figure out the clutch when, in reality, we are
unable to even accelerate or brake! For
many of us, when life gets difficult, when stresses, anxieties and persecutions
come, our faith struggles. We have read,
discussed and learned in youth group that this is because many who give their
lives to the Lord don't understand that a faith in God through Jesus Christ
must be actively submissive.
In Matthew 16:24, the Apostle pens a very famous
saying of Jesus, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and
take up their cross and follow me."
Without diving into the extensive study of what it means to "take
up (one's) cross," let's dive into the discussion of what it means to deny
one's self and follow Christ. Many of us
have an exceptionally hard time doing this!
In order to deny ourselves, we must allow someone else the title of
"Lord over us." That's all
well and good when we want to be saved from sin and death! We can easily invite Jesus to be "the
Lord of our life" when it means that we get a Hell-free eternity out of
the deal, but do we understand that inviting Jesus to be our Lord means that we
are submitting ourselves, our thoughts, our actions, our passions and our possessions
to His ownership? Mia understood this
when she was baptized this past Sunday.
It was the sole topic of one of our conversations leading up to her
baptism. If our faith is to stand the
test of pain, suffering and persecution, we must understand that we are not our
own, that we are bought with a price. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
Jesus famously recites the greatest
commandment in Mark 12:30 and Luke 10:27 when He says, "Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with
all your strength." This is a
complete look at what it means to Love God and submit ourselves to Him with
everything that we are. Over and over again, scripture teaches us that, in
faith, we must submit ourselves to the Lord, but what does that look like? We must ask ourselves, does God own our
heart, the seat of our emotions? Luke
12:34 says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Does God have our attention? Do we know what God loves? Do we love what God loves? Do we know what God hates? Do we hate what God hates? It's about submission. It's about ownership. Does God have our soul: our will and our
emotional drive? Colossians 3:23 tells
us that we must do everything with all of our soul for the Lord. Does He have that? Does He possess our passion, our focus, our
complete emotional energy? Can we submit
that? Does God have our mind? Have we submitted ourselves to His command in
Philippians 4:8 to only dwell on that which is pure and edifying? Does God have our strength, our actions and
physical energy? Colossians 3:17 tells
us that whatever we do, whether eating or drinking or any other action, we do
it all in Jesus' name. Have we? Is that a fair description of our faith? If we do not submit these parts of ourselves
to God, we do not have faith in Him. We
do not trust Him.
We often see our relationship with Jesus, our
reception of His presence in our lives, as a contract. In various clauses, we like to try to dictate
the nature of our relationship. We ask
for only that which is necessary for salvation (I must say that this is only
oftentimes, not everyone and not always, praise God!). That type of thinking and attitude has
effectively dictated the transactional nature of this relationship, "You
get yours, God, when I get mine."
One of the big problems with this line of thinking, aside from being
hypocritical, offensive and outlandishly presumptuous, is that there is
absolutely no obligation on our part. We
reserve the right to dictate our own terms, review God's demands and express
our opinion of His decrees and desires.
Our faith must be BUILT on the premise of full surrender! We are not our own! If we are no longer slaves to sin and death,
it is only because we are slaves to God.
As Americans, that rings incredibly offensive, but we must understand
that there is no middle ground. To
receive Jesus' lordship of our lives is to renounce our own. We look at what baptism is, the submission of
our body to be buried with Christ's in order to be raised to a new life under
new management with His, a display that is still fresh in our minds from last
Sunday, and see that submission is our marching order! Jesus Christ is our cornerstone, our master,
our God, our brother and our friend.
When we remember this, the uncertainty of this world, the unclear
decisions, the frustrating responsibilities all begin to fall off our
shoulders. It is no longer our
responsibility. Thank you, Lord, for
taking control!
In His Grip,
BJ
