Charles Cowman, who lived in the late 1800’s and was a missionary to Japan, wrote, “God cannot fulfill His richest promise to any of us until we have offered up to Him, in utter completeness of surrender, ourselves. Then He can do glorious things for and with our lives.”
That is exactly why thousands of Christians NEVER see God work greatly in their lives, they REFUSE to give Him COMPLETE control. Oh, many of them give Him a lot of their lives, and then they sit there and wonder why nothing seems to happen. They get discouraged and say, “It doesn’t work. This Christian life isn’t worth living.” But truthfully, they have NEVER tried the TRUE CHRISTIAN life!
The TRUE Christian life involves ABSOLUTE abandonment of our life to follow Him. We NO LONGER have final decision making power. We surrender ALL the choices and decisions to His PERFECT will and seek to always do what is pleasing to Him.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God…” (Romans 12:1)
Most of the time, it is the stuff of this world that we try to hold onto that prevents God from working mightily in and through us. It’s like we have a huge tumor sticking out of our body that weighs us down and keeps us from doing much at all. Well, we go to the doctor and he says he has to remove ALL of the tumor for us to be healthy and well. And we argue, “Oh, but can’t you leave this part of the tumor? Do you have to remove it ALL?” “That would be STUPID!” you say. But yet that’s what many Christians do with their lives. They want to hang on to their old life even though it has never fully satisfied them.
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER OF EVERYTHING!!! – That’s the ONLY way to FULLY experience all that God has to offer!
When the people from Jesus home town did not believe in Him, the Bible tells us, “And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.” (Matthew 13:58) And likewise, He will NOT do mighty works in YOUR life until you trust Him enough to let Him have COMPLETE CONTROL of your life.