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Never Give Up - by Abby Frierson
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Location: Blogs WCFS NewsletterStudent Developer |
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| Posted by: Newsletter Editor |
12/17/2008 |
Popular today is the theme, "Never give up." It is used in a variety
of circumstances, from sports to dream-seeking. The basic
illustration it confers is the stubborn determination to suck all you
can from this life, from yourself, from others; it emphasizes the
power of self over hardship and obstacles. It is used in Christian
circles as well, but there the focus is clinging to God, not
ourselves. We are to never give up seeking God and His will never to
fall away from pursuing His glory and praise in our lives. But is
this the catchphrase God would choose for us? Surely He never wants
us to fall away from following Him, but He does command us to give
ourselves up for His service. He calls us to lives of ultimate
surrender. Total, unembellished submission to Him, and His will, is
something He requires of us. In the Bible, this kind of surrender has
several different forms, such as yielding(or submitting), humility,
and sacrifice. All of these illustrate the main idea of letting go,
letting God, and denying self. Each facet of surrender has many
glorious spiritual truths, and is worth studying in great detail.
Marvel at the amazing design God has for just one act, and how the
doing of it is manifest in so many other characteristics and
blessings.
What does it mean to yield? And who should you yield to? Second
Chronicles commands, "Yield yourselves unto the LORD," and Romans
further defines the act by stating that we need to yield to God, not
sin. So what is yielding? Again, we find the answer in Romans, which
declares "to whom ye yield yourselves...his servants ye are..." That
means that when you yield, you are surrendering the reins to a higher
authority, and when you submit to God, you are humbling yourself as
His servant. But giving in to sin makes you its slave. Another
benefit of yielding is found in Ecclesiastes: "yielding pacifieth
great offences." So, when you yield or let go of your side of an
argument or disagreement, submitting to the other party, many wounds
are healed, and joy and fellowship is often restored. However, so
often we give in to sin, finding that easier than submission to our
Father. As James 4:7 states, Yielding to God is never easy, yet great
rewards follow when we "submit...to God."The hardest part about yielding is humility. As proud, selfish human
beings, we hate accepting any kind of defeat of our wills, and are
constantly "fightin' for our rights." But as Christians, we need to
be humble before God, remembering that even He "humbleth Himself to
behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth." He doesn't
hesitate to lower Himself for us because of His great love; can't we
make the effort to submit to our Father? Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, is the most humble person Who ever lived, and He is God, sinless
and all-powerful. Yet we continually exalt ourselves, thinking we
know better than our Creator! Thankfully, He is so patient with us; it
took 40 years "to humble" the Israelites, and He was faithful the
whole time! As stated in Isaiah, He abides with the "contrite and
humble spirit," and promises, "the humble shall be exalted"(Luke
14:11). There are so many blessings associated with humility:
Proverbs proclaims that "before honor is humility," and "by
humility...are riches." It's tough to be humble, but the rewards are
definitely worth the trouble.
In the Bible, God has laid out His roadmap of history. He begins with
the absence of sin "in the beginning," and follows the horrible
effects of sin through the generations of His people. We can see the
attempts of men to take charge, to destroy sin, and to restore
themselves to righteousness. But it's obvious that only through
surrender lives are changed, and joy is found. None of the crusades of
history resulted in wiping away sin; most of them only added problems
to the world. Only the surrender of Jesus Christ on the cross
succeeded in paying our sin-debt to God, and set us free from the
curse we pulled onto ourselves in Eden. No other heroic act could do
what one act of submission by our humble Savior accomplished in
sacrificing Himself for us. Today let us follow in our Jesus'
blood-stained footprints and live lives worthy of Him, lives of
surrender and humility. Truly the benefits are astonishing; as Jesus
proclaimed in Matthew, "whosoever therefore shall humble himself...the
same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven." Humility is the key facet
of surrender, though it is the hardest to live up to. But we don't
have to go it alone. "God...GIVETH GRACE UNTO THE HUMBLE"(James 4:6).
Surrender is foreign and repulsive to our "Never give up" world, but
is essential in the Christian life. And we adopt our own version of
this catchphrase upon our decision to follow Christ: we choose to
"Never give up on God," knowing He will never give up on us.
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