Hey Friends,
Yesterday we talked about full surrender to the Spirit of the living God. Let me give you some illustrations to the fact. William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. At its inception it was all about evangelism. Booth had enormous success in his pursuit of souls and the Kingdom of God. He was asked the reason for his success:
“Booth remained silent for several moments. Finally, with tear-filled eyes, he said, ”There have been men with greater brains or opportunities than I, but I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth there was.’”
“Several years later when General Booth’s daughter heard about her father’s comment regarding his full surrender to God, she said, “That wasn’t really his secret – his secret was that he never took it back.’”
Jim Cymbala wrote about surrender: “I discovered an astonishing truth; God is attracted to weakness. He can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him. The first step in any spiritual awakening is demolition. We cannot make headway in seeking God without first tearing down the accumulated junk in our souls. Rationalizing has to cease. We have to start seeing the sinful debris we hadn’t noticed before, which is what holds back the blessings of God. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches His power among us.”
We must cry out to God in total desperation. We can do nothing but He can do all things. Let us humble ourselves in prayer and fasting. Let us seek Him with all of our heart. He is the answer and He is what we must seek first.
What are you depending on? Who are you trusting? How are you seeking God? He really is attracted to weakness – it is a theme that runs throughout the Word.
Love Ya,
Pastor Chris
What great inspiration for the rest of us, look what total submission to God did for so many people, and is still doing—through just one man! If that doesn’t get your boat floating right, what would? God will do so much if we just let Him, but for me it’s an almost constant battle to be weak enough to allow it to happen. But when I do, God comes through a hundredfold, sometimes it takes a while for my clouded mind to see it though. Trusting Him is I guess the easiest part, at least for me; being weak is the problem. So often we are brought up in this culture to be strong and force our opinions and actions through, when actually, that brings a lot of heartache in the long run. God’s way is absolutely phenomenal, but it takes work! Hope everyone has a great weekend….and may God be with you all.