The year 2015 is coming to a close, and my commitment to blogging was for one year. What an incredible blessing to be able to jot down thoughts and rehearse what God continues to teach me through His Word and the people and events in my life.
All any of us has to share with others is our weakness translated into a life message for the benefit of another. I trust God has used my flaws to manifest His strength for your benefit.
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” II Cor. 12: 9-10
Jim Elliot, husband of Elizabeth Elliot, who was martyred at the hand of the Auca Indians, once said: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
Listen to the spirit of his devotedness…
“Father, let me be weak that I might loose my clutch on everything temporal. My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me lose the tension of the grasping hand…Rather, open my hand to receive the nail of Calvary, as Christ’s was opened, that I, releasing all, might be released, unleashed from all that binds me now. He thought Heaven, yea, equality with God not a thing to be clutched at. So let me release my grasp.”
Christmas is a wonderful time to put our busy lives back in Scriptural perspective. We celebrate the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…the One who “gives us everything we need to lead a godly life! “ II Pet.1: 3
Genuine Christianity is an unconditional surrender to His Lordship!
While attending the University of Arizona I was invited to join Kappa Alpha Theta, a national sorority. I had a sense of acceptance and grew to love the girls and the accountability. After a semester of initiation we had a night of mild hazing that culminated in stepping individually behind a veil for the final step of becoming a Theta. As the pledge of loyalty was read and the words were spoken to me… I was asked to repeat them. At that time I realized I had already pledged my loyalty to Christ.
A few months earlier, over the Thanksgiving holiday with my parents and sisters, I had attended a church service and had heard for the first time in my life that I could know God in a personal way through His Son, Jesus Christ. Standing behind that curtain I was struck, profoundly, when I realized I had already given my total allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ that Thanksgiving weekend! When He walked into my life everything changed, I had no more allegiance to give.
Time has tested on life’s stage that unconditional surrender I made to my loving Savior and Sovereign Lord in those college days.
What is your present commitment?
When we talk about a total surrendering of our lives to the Lordship of Christ, we are talking about yielding all our rights and expectations!
· A dying to self and self-attitudes
· A yielding of all entitlements and self-interest
WHAT?...WAIT A MINUTE!
Don’t we run from the people and circumstances that call us into total commitment? It is much easier to go with the flow as the secular, ungodly world dictates to us relativity, independence and “I have my rights!” The world’s motto: “Strength only…show no weakness!” The human struggle wants His power to do OUR will.
Is humility a position of strength or weakness, in your opinion?
Humility is me… seeing the contrast between my spiritual condition (a sinner) and God’s holiness and then receiving His grace to live Christ-like, not Jackie-like!
Phil. 3:10 Grace is doing His will with His power! It is acknowledging His presence and His power to live the Christian life. Victory is living in that truth!
Are you living in Victory?
Have you surrendered your life to His Lordship?
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
