Today is Wednesday, May 12th, 2004; Karen's Korner #293

Like many churches and church groups, our Sunday School class is studying the best-selling book "The Purpose Drive Life" by Rick Warren. Chapter 10 was part of the chapters we were looking at last week together. The chapter title is "The Heart of Worship".

 

Warren says that the heart of worship is surrender, an unpopular word, disliked almost as much as the word submission. It implies losing and no one wants to be a loser. But, he goes on to say, it is our natural response to God's amazing love and mercy. We give ourselves to him, not out of fear, but in love, "because He first loved us." (I John 4:9,10,19)

 

The supreme example of self-surrender is Jesus. The night before His crucifixion Jesus surrendered Himself to God's plan. He prayed, "Father, everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine."

 

God wants us to pray and ask for many things, but what happens when our prays are answered differently than we what we wanted or what we think is best for us.

 

According to Warren, genuine surrender says, "Father, if this problem, pain, sickness, or circumstance is needed to fulfill your purpose and glory in my life or in another's, please don't take it away." This level of maturity does not come easy. In Jesus' case, He agonized so much over God's plan that He sweat drops of blood. Surrender is hard work. In our case, it is intense warfare against our self-centered nature.

 

So what happens if we pray and believe like that? Warren says we experience peace; we experience freedom; and we experience God's power. "Stubborn temptations and overwhelming problems can be defeated by Christ when given to Him," he writes.

 

May we all experience God's best as we learn to surrender to His Will for our lives.......each day!


Back