Surrender
Day 296, Tuesday, June 3
Mark 8:27 – Chapter 9
As I’m writing this I’m listening to a song titled “Control,” which has a recurring line, “I give up control—body, mind and soul.”
One of the fundamental requirements of Christianity—and one of the most difficult—is surrendering control of all parts of our life to God.
One of the most extreme statements of this truth is made by Jesus in 8:34-35 when Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and the gospel will save it.”
It’s difficult for us to wrap our minds around this idea that the key to having life is surrendering life. The key to peace is giving up control.
Especially in the western world we have been taught that control equal success. Words and phrases like power and self-determination and strength and boundaries are markers of the well adjusted and successful individual—and it is always the success of the individual that matters most.
Jesus turns that around. In 9:35 he says, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” That’s hardly what success looks like in most self-help books or on reality TV shows.
What is this surrender Jesus demands? Does giving up your life mean this is actually a call to die?
Yes.
It means being willing to be obedient to God, even to the point of death. But most of us won’t be called to die early for the gospel. We will one day face actual death, and then it will mean surrendering this life and trusting that God will raise us to a new one.
Until then it means giving up the life we want for the life God wants us to live—even if that life is less comfortable or less fulfilling than the one we want.
Tuesday meditation
Proverbs 29:15-17
A rod and a reprimand impart wisdom, but a child left undisciplined disgraces its mother.
When the wicked thrive, so does sin, but the righteous will see their downfall.
Discipline your children, and they will give you peace; they will bring you the delights you desire.
Prayer focus
God, I surrender all I have and all I am to you.
-Rev. Mark Fleming