Busy, busy, busy.

Stop.

Wait.

Listen.

Silence the distractions.

It is in the calm and the stillness that God speaks. It is in the place of surrender—absolute and without reservation—that He will open up His arms of mercy and envelop us in the warmth of His love and unconditional grace. As the writer of Hebrews said, we are to work to enter His rest. Somewhat paradoxical, yes? Inherently this is the nature of the Kingdom—usually the total polar opposite of what we are used to as human beings.

But can we really call ourselves human beings when so much of the things we spend much of our lives on is based solely on what we do? I think it would be an accurate statement to make that a very high percentage of the people on this planet could be considered human do-ings instead of human be-ings.

Look at my bank account.

Look at my job.

Look at my car.

Look at my house.

Look at MY MINISTRY.

Me, me, me, me.

Whatever happened to ‘take up your cross and follow Me’? Jesus never said to take up your 401k and follow your own selfish ambitions. He said to die to yourself.

Like, really die to them. Surrender is the key to spiritual success.

He said to lay down your life for your friends—not for your pride.

Do we even realize how foolish and insane we act sometimes? Why is it that so many of us refuse to admit that we cannot do this thing on our own? Why do we spend so much time pruning and maintaining this façade that we call our lives when all we are really doing is keeping our body alive? That is not living. That is surviving.

I refuse to believe that this life-style is the kind of ‘life more abundantly’ that Jesus died for.

I think that it is a very clever and deceitful tactic of the enemy to get us to stay busy. When we are busy we miss what God is trying to speak to our hearts. Without daily surrendering to His will and His purposes, we will totally miss what the still, small voice of our Heavenly Father is trying to whisper to our lonely and broken hearts in the midst of a world of people who are aching for a glimpse of true hope.

The anger that burns within so many of the people on this planet is a deadly poison that blinds the eyes of those who carry it around. It blinds them from seeing the lost and needy right in front of them. It blinds them from seeing the divine opportunities that God will consistently and graciously put before them. Ironically enough, it blinds them from their blindness. It is usually these who are the ones to point the finger and say, “I will not believe until I see!” and yet in many cases the signs or the proof is right before them but due to their own blindness they cannot see! This is not a deficiency on the part of God. It is a deficiency in the heart of the person who has not laid down their lives for the sake of the Kingdom of God. Do you see how deceptive this trap is? It is the trap of offense—whether the offense is toward God or toward others, or even toward oneself, it does not matter.

Harboring offense leads to great bitterness and eats away at the mind and soul of a person like cancer ravaging through someone’s body. It is no wonder that many who have extensive experience in healing ministries have said that they have seen many more people healed of cancer when they have let go of offenses they were holding against others or against God. In my own experience, and the experience that I have seen in and through others around me, I believe that offense stems directly from desire. As it says in Proverbs, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.

The cause of this heart sickness, wisdom says, is hope deferred. However, if there had not been first some sort of desire, then there would be no hope deferred. Therefore, it all comes back to the issue of surrendering ourselves to God. At the end of the day, this really is the answer to every situation.

Surrender.

Give up.

Stop striving.

Stop running from what God has called you to.

You can run but once you’ve said yes, He’s got you. You’ll end up running right into Him.
Either that or you’ll end up in the stomach of a whale for bit of a detour from your plans. Jonah was told to go somewhere and do something for the Lord—but the assignment did not fit into his own idea of what God’s ‘perfect will’ was for that situation.

We could all take a major lesson from Jonah. If God told you something that He’s going to do that involves any kind of judgement being brought upon a people group or a city, or a country, or whatever…it is probably pretty safe to say that He is waiting for someone to rise up who will come into line with His heart for people rather than giving in to humanism and selfish desire.

He is looking for someone to stand in the gap FOR people who are lost, not to point the finger and pray down condemnation upon them.

And He surely meant it when He said, “Be STILL and KNOW I am God.”

Maybe it’s time to lay our burdens at His feet and to stop trying to be God.

God is God, and we are not. I’m done trying to pretend otherwise.

Labels: christ, offense, surrender