Giving Our Lives Away

Have you given your life to Christ?

Probably everyone reading this blog would answer “yes,” and nearly everyone listening to Pastor Ben’s sermon Sunday would also answer yes. But I’m afraid by “yes” most of us really mean:

“I have given my sins to Christ.”
“I have given my really bad habits to Him.”
“I have given my major decisions to Him.”
and, if we’re really surrendered,
“I have given my deepest struggles to Him.

But our lives. Have we truly given our lives to Him? That can’t be done in one lump surrender. It can be decided then, but it can’t be done. We can only give our lives away like we live them – day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute. An unceasing, perpetual giving, like a spouting artesian well or a thundering waterfall. Like Old Faithful; no, like the Niagara Falls.

That begins to happen when we acknowledge that we no longer have control over our seconds and minutes and hours and days. It’s never again going to be “our turn to say what we do today,” never time for some off-duty self-indulgence. We gave our life to Him and from now on we’re alive on His time and terms; we’re operating under His authority; we’re living out His days and plans and purposes for us.

Lest we think God is expecting something unreasonable in this arrangement, let’s remember that Jesus gave His life for us (did He not give His seconds and hours and days, as well as His final breath, for us?)… should we not at the very least return the favor?

I say all that to say this: being led by the Spirit is just what it sounds like – following Someone else every second of every day. But it’s not just the lifestyle of a few fanatics. It’s actually what every one of us signed up for when we gave our lives to the One who gave His life for us. It’s for you and me.

No, it doesn’t come automatically; it’s something we have to learn, something we have to work at. Something we get better at day by day and step by step and breath by breath. Something we need a Teacher for, something that calls for a Guide… Someone like the Holy Spirit.