October 15, 2021: A Surrendered Life Has Two Sides. Are We Allowing Both Sides to Function as One?

The above statement can be a little confusing, but I will attempt to try and explain what this means. Taken from the book of "Absolute Surrender" by Andrew Murray, here is what he says about the "two sides" of "absolute surrender":

Excerpt From Book of Absolute Surrender

"A good conscience is complete obedience to God, day by day, and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer - that is a life of absolute surrender. Such a life has two sides - on the one side: 'absolute surrender to work what God wants you do' and on

the other side, 'to let God work what He wants to do'"

What Andrew Murray is saying here was a bit confusing to me at first, but then I finally got it. You see, we can "say", and "be" absolutely surrendered to God in "what He wants us to do" in our surrender to Him, but still struggle with the "way the work is to be completed" for Him in our surrender.

First Side: I will give you an example. When I first came to realize that God was calling me to teach other people what "true surrender" means in one's life, I accepted what God wanted me to do. I became excited thinking that He was going to take me on a book tour promoting my book and teach this subject to other churches. I started sending out books to churches throughout California to let them know that I was available. I met with leadership at my church to offer to teach a class on surrender, but not one response came back, and my church put the idea on the back burner.

I then turned to God and asked Him, out of frustration, "God, what are you doing? I know you have brought me this far to understand what surrender means and I know that you are in control of all things, but nothing is happening?" Then God opened my eyes.

Second Side: I realized that "I was trying" to make things happened the way I wanted them to happen. I had to let go and let God work what He wanted to do, His way, not my way. There are times in our lives we think we know where God is leading us or wants us to do. But many of those times, it is our "own will", our selfish flesh, directing us. We must truly surrender "our will" completely to God and let Him work through us. The Book of Ephesians says it clearly.

Ephesians 2: 10 (NKJV)

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

PERSONNAL COMMENT:

To live a life of "true rest" with our Lord, we must be willing to be "absolutely surrendered" in all areas of our life, and let God do His handiwork through us. Let go of our choices we want to make, and let God direct us in the way He wants to lead us.