Surrendering Yourself to Become Greater

Romans 15:13, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I would like you to do something for me. I want you to ponder the great adventure that God has in store for you. It might be a conversation with an incredible individual that will change your life but never see again. Or it might be packing your bags for an improbable journey to accomplish something unimaginable. What I want you to conjure up is the impossible, that moment when God takes your breath away. A moment so big, so audacious that it could never happen. I want you to experience what it is like when you stop limiting God by your self-awareness. When you say to yourself, “it could never be,” you have arrived at the cusp of what your life was meant to be. 

Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

I was reading today about becoming the person God made us be. The challenge was in how we can be more of ourselves by surrendering ourselves entirely to God’s will. Surrendering ourselves was to deny ourselves, so I thought. Greg Ogden, in his book “The Essential Commandment,” argues that to be the person God wants us to be, we must first include Him. Including Him is the surrendering part. God gave us all of these attributes that make us unique and special. We can not unlock our true potential without His key. He is the magic sauce that makes the flavor of who are come alive.  

Paul was not a different person after his encounter with Jesus. He was a better version of himself. All the attributes God gave Paul at birth were rechannelled and made stronger. His personality did not transform; it magnified. He became a force with which to be reckoned. 

We put limits on ourselves based on a lot of biased, worldly input, much of that input is well-meaning but limiting. At a very early age, we start to define ourselves based on that world perception. By the time we are in our adolescence, we have crafted a comfortable expectation. We don’t know where we are going or how to get there, but we do know our limitations. We are not consciously aware of most of these. Many of these subtly implied limitations direct our decisions. 

Romans 8:31, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” 

By submitting ourselves to God’s will, we negate a lot of this influence. We start to view our potential through a new set of lenses. If we are in the center of God’s plan for our lives, the improbable not only becomes possible, it becomes absolute. God will not transform you from someone who can’t carry a tune to a concert pianist. He could, but probably won’t. What He will do is magnify your talents. He will guide you in ways you had not imagined. He will stretch you, challenge you, and make you stronger. The fear of being outside the artificial fences the world has put around us will be gone.

He will take your breath away. He will show you potential you never thought you had. In all of this, He will smile. He will see you come alive. 

Zephaniah 3:17, “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.”