Devotions

Surrender. What does this word tell you? In literal terms, surrender means “to give up something to another person.” It also means to relinquish something granted to you. This could include your possessions, power, goals or even your life. Christians today hear much about the surrendered life, but what does it mean exactly?

Jesus lived a perfectly surrendered life: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38, NKJV) and “I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks and judges” (John 8:50). Christ never did anything on his own. He made no move and spoke no word without being instructed by the Father. “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father taught me, I speak these things…. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him” (8:28–29).

Jesus’ full surrender to the Father is an example of how we all should live. You may try to excuse yourself, saying, “Jesus was God in flesh,” but the surrendered life is not imposed on anyone, including Jesus. “Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” (John 10:17–18).

Jesus was telling us, “Make no mistake. My Father gave me the choice to pass up this cup and avoid the cross, but I chose to do it out of love and full surrender to him.”

Our heavenly Father has given all of us this same right: the privilege to choose a surrendered life. No one is forced to yield his life to God. He freely offers us a Promised Land full of milk, honey and fruit; but we may choose not to enter.

When we stand before God at the judgment, we won’t be judged by our ministries, achievements or number of converts. There will be one measure of success on that day: Were our hearts fully surrendered to God? Did we succumb to peer pressure and follow the crowd, or did we seek him alone for direction? The truth is that we can have as much of Christ as we want.

Skeptics love to come into our lives and say things like “Hey, I love your vision and passion; they’re great. But why risk it? Some people aren’t going to like it. You’ll probably get some negative feedback. You might make some people outright angry. If you offend somebody, why do what you’re called to do by God?”

Why give half your money away to the poor, if your family says, “That’s a stupid thing to do”? Why go ahead and keep doing what God’s called you to do when you might provoke the wrath of the skeptics around you?  Why?

Because you’re not called to please man. You are called to please God. We see in the Bible that “Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men’” (Acts 5:29, ESV). You’re not here to make everybody happy with your decisions. Children of God, you must be willing to make tough decisions that sometimes go against the current and are unpopular. When you make those choices, not everybody will go along with you.

Some people might say, “In this economy, you starting your own business is the most foolish thing!” If God has told you to start your own business, though, you don’t look at the economy. You don’t listen to the skeptics’ voices around you. You don’t look at anything else except Jesus and where he’s calling you.

Now in this economy I’d ask God twice, but I would say, “God, oh God, oh God, take away from me any residue of that spirit to appease man. God, rend my heart of that attitude that says, ‘I want to make sure everybody around me likes me. I want to make sure everybody pats me on the back all the time.’” It’s time that we get some spiritual gumption and say, “I don’t care what man says about me. I don’t care what the world thinks about this ridiculous faith-effort that I’m moving into because I’m going to obey God and not man.”

Fear disobedience and the disapproval of God more than you do the disapproval of man. I’m going to listen to his voice, and I want him to speak over me, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).

The pace of our modern life is so frantic! Between work, school, church, housework, errands, homework, sports, iPad, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Netflix, etc., there isn't always a lot of time left to have great family conversations. Monday through Sunday, life runs at a hundred miles an hour, and too often we stick to superficial discussions with our family that sound like “Tidy up your room.”

Let’s reserve quality time to listen and talk with our loved ones. During all the days of our lives, let us give the gift of availability to our spouses and children. Scripture says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 6:5-7, NIV).

If I had a time machine, I would go back to the days when my children were still young and intentionally have deeper conversations with them. I would talk more with them about the following:

• • The ravages of drugs and all other forms of addiction, and how God has delivered me from them and can protect them.

• • The different forms of temptation they will have to face and how God will give them strength and grace to resist.

• • The value of hard work, honesty and forgiveness.

• • The Biblical perspective I’ve learned to have on the issues they hear about every day in school from their teachers or friends.

I would take the initiative to broach sensitive topics. I would tell them more about the Kingdom of God, his plans, his grace, his fidelity. Too often, while instilling God's commandments in our children, our approach boils down to a list of guidelines and prohibitions.

After over thirty-five years of full-time pastoral ministry in which I have brought the Word thousands of times to over fifty countries around the world by the grace of God, what my children (now all grown up) remember most are not my teachings and my words as a pastor. What they remember most is the time spent together, treating each other like a gift from the Lord. Keep in mind that what your loved ones are looking for, above all else, is you.

^{Claude Houde is the lead pastor of Eglise Nouvelle Vie (New Life Church) in Montreal, Canada. Under his leadership New Life Church has grown from a handful of people to more than 3500 in a part of Canada with few successful Protestant churches.}

When a crisis strikes, you don’t have time to build yourself up in prayer and faith. Those who spend their time in the prayer closet with Jesus, though, are always ready.

A couple wrote to our ministry recently in a spirit that revealed they’d been with Jesus. Their 24-year-old daughter had been out with a friend when a madman kidnapped both young women. He murdered their daughter in a grisly fashion. The couple was in shock. Their friends and neighbors wondered, “How could any parent survive this kind of tragedy?”

Within that same hour, the Holy Spirit had come to the sorrowing couple, bringing supernatural comfort. Of course, in the painful days that followed, those grieving parents continued to ask God why, yet all the while they experienced divine rest and peace.

Everyone who knew these parents was astonished at their calmness, but that couple had been prepared for their moment of crisis. They’d known all along that God would never allow anything to happen to them without an underlying purpose. When the terrible news came, they didn’t fall apart because their faith was based on unshakable truths.

This couple lived out scripture’s words: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah” (Psalm 46:1-3, NKJV).

In fact, these parents and their surviving children began praying for the killer. The people in their town couldn’t accept it, but the godly couple spoke and taught of God’s ability to provide strength, no matter what they may face. The townspeople recognized their strength as coming only from Jesus. Soon they were saying about the couple, “They’re a miracle. Those are true Jesus people.”

How many of us are known the same way? How many of us have prepared in our prayer closet for years so that a crisis doesn’t knock us down? Let’s seek the Lord’s face now and strengthen ourselves in him, long before the trials strike.

In Acts 3, we find Peter and John going to the temple to worship. Just outside the temple gate sat a beggar who had been crippled from birth. Peter told him to stand and walk in the name of Jesus, and the man was healed!

When Peter and John saw crowds gathering to marvel at the miracle, they began preaching Christ. Thousands were saved. While Peter and John were preaching, the synagogue rulers asked the disciples, “By what power or by what name have you done this?” (Acts 4:7,  NKJV). Peter was emboldened by the Holy Ghost and essentially told them, “His name is Jesus Christ, the man you crucified three weeks ago. God raised him from the dead, and now he’s the power that healed this man. No one can be saved by any other name than Christ’s name” (see Acts 4:10–12).

The rulers sat stunned. “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). What was the mark that distinguished Peter and John? It was the presence of Jesus. They had Christ’s own likeness and Spirit.

Those who spend time with Jesus can’t get enough of him. Their hearts continually cry out to know the Master better and draw closer to him. Paul states, “To each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (Ephesians 4:7). What is this measure? It means a limited amount. In other words, we’ve all received a certain amount of the saving knowledge of Christ.

For some believers, this initial measure is all they ever desire. They want just enough of Jesus to escape judgment, to feel forgiven, to keep a good reputation and to endure an hour of church each Sunday. Such people are in “maintenance mode,” and they give Jesus only the bare requirements.

God has given you spiritual gifts not so you can maintain your life as it is! He wants you to be filled up with Christ’s Spirit. This is crucial because deceivers are coming to rob you of your faith. If you’re rooted in Christ and maturing in him, no deceptive doctrine will ever sway you. The only way to grow to such maturity, though, is by wanting more of Jesus until you are distinguished even to unbelievers by his mark.