Purpose Driven Life 10
On page 81 the author suggests that your surrender will show in your relationships, including “You don’t react to criticism… you don’t demand your rights.” In this day of dysfunctional relationships those are sensitive words. There is surrender and then there is being a doormat. I think the problem is that the act of surrender is not abandonment of your individuality and worth as a child of God. It is solely to God that you are surrendering not to everyone around you. At any rate, that passage may meet some negative responses.
I have been fooling around the edge of “surrender” for some time and it is a difficult thing. Not because I resist giving up control consciously, but the conscious act of surrender is self-contradictory as best I can tell. It is not a one-time decision to surrender. It is to decide at each moment not to decide. It is the act of not acting. I don’t know if I have truly surrendered since even the act of evaluating how much I have surrendered is a self-willed act.
Talking about surrendering, this ties directly in with being “filled with the holy spirit.” One can use the wedding in Cana as a marvelous parable of redemption following surrender. The ceremonial vessels were empty. Only because they were empty could they be filled with water. Once it fills the vessle the water becomes wine. Biblically water is used as a symbol for the word of God. So the parable becomes, we earthen vessels must become empty (surrendered). Once we are empty we must be filled with the word of God. Filled to the brim, Jesus was very specific. Once the word fills every hollow of our being the pure word becomes the new wine of eternal life. I don’t know if that was intended, but it is a touching message.
Under the broad topic of acting vs. surrendering is a concept that I am working on related to “Effective Prayer”. Some time ago I began to pray for Dafur when it occurred to me, “how can I pray for God to help these people when I have not lifted a finger to help them myself?” That idea led to the concept that prayer may work exclusively in conjunction with our actions. Can I really say, “Lord help the poor” when I do nothing for them other than pray? This is hinted at by James (chap. 2) in the comment about telling a person without a coat to “stay warm” while doing nothing. I have found it odd that Jesus always “did things” in conjunction with his miracles. He made a paste to smear on the blind man’s eyes; he put fingers in the deaf man’s ears, etc. For him it was not necessary (the raising of Lazarus, the young girl and the healing of the centurion’s servant all were done only at a word). But more often than not there was a physical, arguably superfluous act, associated with His miracles.
Was Jesus trying to show us that for a human acts to be imbued with God’s power prayer must be added. And, for human prayers to be effective action must be taken? This would certainly put in perspective some of the platitudes that I have been known to pass off as prayers.
I have been fooling around the edge of “surrender” for some time and it is a difficult thing. Not because I resist giving up control consciously, but the conscious act of surrender is self-contradictory as best I can tell. It is not a one-time decision to surrender. It is to decide at each moment not to decide. It is the act of not acting. I don’t know if I have truly surrendered since even the act of evaluating how much I have surrendered is a self-willed act.
Talking about surrendering, this ties directly in with being “filled with the holy spirit.” One can use the wedding in Cana as a marvelous parable of redemption following surrender. The ceremonial vessels were empty. Only because they were empty could they be filled with water. Once it fills the vessle the water becomes wine. Biblically water is used as a symbol for the word of God. So the parable becomes, we earthen vessels must become empty (surrendered). Once we are empty we must be filled with the word of God. Filled to the brim, Jesus was very specific. Once the word fills every hollow of our being the pure word becomes the new wine of eternal life. I don’t know if that was intended, but it is a touching message.
Under the broad topic of acting vs. surrendering is a concept that I am working on related to “Effective Prayer”. Some time ago I began to pray for Dafur when it occurred to me, “how can I pray for God to help these people when I have not lifted a finger to help them myself?” That idea led to the concept that prayer may work exclusively in conjunction with our actions. Can I really say, “Lord help the poor” when I do nothing for them other than pray? This is hinted at by James (chap. 2) in the comment about telling a person without a coat to “stay warm” while doing nothing. I have found it odd that Jesus always “did things” in conjunction with his miracles. He made a paste to smear on the blind man’s eyes; he put fingers in the deaf man’s ears, etc. For him it was not necessary (the raising of Lazarus, the young girl and the healing of the centurion’s servant all were done only at a word). But more often than not there was a physical, arguably superfluous act, associated with His miracles.
Was Jesus trying to show us that for a human acts to be imbued with God’s power prayer must be added. And, for human prayers to be effective action must be taken? This would certainly put in perspective some of the platitudes that I have been known to pass off as prayers.
posted by Mark at 22:38
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