I despondently watched a drop of water roll all the way down the window as I laid prostrate across my fully reclined seat in my car over a lake early in the morning. I had been at the lake in my car all night trying to stay warm as the tears streamlined down my face like the same streaming rain that was soaking my windshield. An unfavorable fire kindled and burned so deep within me, a pain that was almost hard to endure sunk deeper and deeper into the pit my soul, "it was an egregious rejection" My eyes glazed over as if to be amiss to all reality... I had lost everything! I lost all that I built up over the years, all that I aspired to be! My life as I knew it was destroyed, with what seemed to be no hope of restoration... Failure rung in my ears and disappointment seemed to become permanently branded on my forehead.
I died that day like so many other days before it... and began getting to a point where I questioned how much more I had to suffer and how much more did I have to die before I could really ever live. They say that struggle and rejection seems to be the marks of a prophet, more like the marks of someone going hard after Jesus and meeting with continual devastation is what we tend to feel like... "God where are you? why have you let this happen to me, when will you vindicate me? Why is going after you so hard on my soul? Why do I have to pay for wanting to do right, and who understands my plight? " This ultimately becomes our apparent and passionate dispute.
When in the car that morning, I remembered a prayer I prayed years before that moment. "God don't let me loose you, I don't trust myself to hold you, I don't trust myself to keep you... I foresee a falling away in my own human nature, don't let me be of those who fall away - Holy spirit, I surrender my past present and my future to you, I give you permission to overlook my comings and my goings - And if it comes down to it, do whatever it takes to keep me on your path. I give you permission to sabotage my own works lest they lead me astray... and to involuntarily redirect me in any time of falling away..." (paraphrase) Ironically I was taken aback at the recollection of my own words, as the lord said to me ever so sweetly... "And I have answered your prayer"
Often our failures are simply the pulling down of our many Babel Towers. How often do we fall behind God or get ahead of him even in pursuit of his call? How many times must we surrender to God, before we escape the pricks of our pursuit. I would say every day we must surrender to him and yield to brokenness rather than to be broken, and yield to humility rather than to be humbled - that he may take guard over our every footstep, and supervise our every move when we fully surrender to him.
It takes great faith and trust to pray that prayer. Its a dangerous prayer and can be extremely hard to digest, yet it's exactly what God is asking us to do! To be fully founded on his Word, and to walk in our true purpose, and to fulfill the mission on our life we must surrender in such a way. Someone once asked me "Mike, how did you find your true purpose and walk so sure in it?" My reply was, that its not my plan or my will or even my purpose to me at all, its his plan and his purpose "in" me that was uncovered when I died to myself multiple times till the bushel of my flesh was pulled back from my life, and yet I still have so much further to go.
Heb 10:39
But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
I close this blog with a challenge... To surrender to God like never before!
"God don't let us loose you, We can't trust ourselves to hold you, we cant trust ourselves to keep you... I foresee a falling away in our own human nature, don't let us be of those who fall away - Holy spirit, We surrender our past present and our future to you, We give you permission to overlook our comings and our goings - And if it comes down to it, do whatever it takes to keep us on your path. We give you permission to sabotage our our own works lest they lead us astray... and to involuntarily redirect us in any time of falling away..."
But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
I close this blog with a challenge... To surrender to God like never before!
"God don't let us loose you, We can't trust ourselves to hold you, we cant trust ourselves to keep you... I foresee a falling away in our own human nature, don't let us be of those who fall away - Holy spirit, We surrender our past present and our future to you, We give you permission to overlook our comings and our goings - And if it comes down to it, do whatever it takes to keep us on your path. We give you permission to sabotage our our own works lest they lead us astray... and to involuntarily redirect us in any time of falling away..."
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Thank you Michael. This blog post documents my struggle with the ultimate surrender to God and His purpose for me over the past 17 years. It's dangerous yet needed.
ReplyDeleteSo glad it blessed you! Praying strength all those who are enduring the making process and standing on Gods word.
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