Short Changed

 I have been thinking lately about what it means to really have Jesus as Lord.  Could it be that we love to have Jesus as Savior, but the Jesus as Lord part makes us a little uncomfortable?  Maybe our intentions our good, and we totally desire to have Jesus as Lord, but without knowing it we neglect His Lordship.  Think about it like this.  If Jesus asked you to give up your job, would you do it?  What about your home?  Your plans?  Your schedule?  Your comfort?  Jesus tells us that to follow Him means to deny ourselves (Luke 9:23) Remember the story of the rich young ruler who obeyed all the commandments, but when Jesus told him to give all he had to the poor, he went away sad?  Could it be that this man misunderstood what it meant to follow Jesus?  Perhaps he thought it meant special privileges or honor of some sort.  Yet, Jesus tells the man that honor and privilege would be found in giving all to follow Him.   

Following Jesus means complete and total surrender.  God does not do this because He is some unjust ruler.  No, He does it because He knows that in our letting go, in our surrender, there is complete and total freedom.  He does it out of love and He is more in love with you that you could ever imagine.  He wants you, ALL of you.

If we don’t surrender to only cling to our own life, we will end up expending far too much energy in working against our freedom in Christ instead of working towards our freedom in Christ.  Not to mention it is just down right sin and an offense to God.  Yep, it is.  When we think we can have all the treasures and blessings of God through His Son, yet skip out on surrendering all of ourselves—we are only deceived.  Because, frankly, we do not have all the treasures and blessings of God if we have not completely and totally abandoned our entire being to the Lord Jesus.    

He’s calling for you.  What is holding you back?