One of the most frustrating things we face is not being able to control the situations around us; but as Christians, this is exactly what we are called to encounter in life. Jesus Christ says in Luke 9:23-24: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” Jesus is the Lord of our lives. How ready are we to follow Him?
We should not be afraid to follow Jesus because He is God—the good, wise, and loving Redeemer. We make foolish mistakes and ill-informed decisions on our own all the time. We should take pleasure in obeying the Lord, trusting that He is in control of everything including our lives.
Giving ourselves up to the Lord is a two-part process. First is to obey Him and resist the devil. The second is to draw near to God, turn away from sin, and sanctify our thoughts and actions. The absence of either one of these two factors means that we are not ready to obey the Lord's will at all, but are trying to control some parts of our life that we are unwilling to give up.
Rather than seeing our obedience to God as a loss, we must acknowledge it as a gain, an eternal gain indeed. If we humble ourselves before God, He promises to lift us up (James 4:7-10).
When the Lord Jesus preached in the temple, He said: “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36 NIV). It was difficult for those who heard Jesus that day to accept and understand that He was indeed God the Son, especially when Jesus has not yet died on the cross and risen from the grave. The unfortunate truth is that sometimes we are just as confused as those people even though we are fully aware of Lord Jesus' plan of redemption.
Brothers, sisters, and friends, we thank God for His great love. No matter where we are and how far we have drifted away, we can still hope to have the true freedom from God. We just need to pause, change our ways, turn and look up to Him. Pray for the Holy Spirit to uncover anything that stands in the way of our freedom in Christ. We shall submit to the Holy Spirit’s findings, confess and repent. May God accept our confession and repentance, the proven ways to restore our relationship in Him. Amen!