when the Lord asks you to surrender to His will... and you don't want to because it's not your will...
Surrender. Dictionary.com defines surrender as "yielding to the power or possession of another." And God asks exactly that of His people. To yield themselves, to give up themselves, to His will and His plan. It's easy to say but not always easy to do. Especially when God asks us to surrender to the things we don't want to.
The prophet Jeremiah had his work cut out for him. All of the prophets did. They had hard jobs. They had to carry God's messages to the people, and those messages usually included quite a bit of judgment and warnings of pending wrath. No one likes to be called to the mat when it comes to sin, and Jeremiah's crowd hated what he had to say to the point that they tried to kill him. But he faithfully kept speaking truth despite the death attempts and threats because what he had to say was important. It was straight from the mouth of God, and if the people really wanted to live they'd listen. Of course, we know by now that God's people had a knack for tuning him out, so I suppose we really shouldn't be surprised by their reactions. Regardless, God was showing His people grace by sending Jeremiah and it was their choice of whether or not they would receive it.
Israel was back to their old, sinful ways. Raise your hand if you are surprised by that fact. It's no surprise, by now, that Israel can't help but be disobedient, and we all know what happens when we disobey. Israel had absolutely brought punishment upon themselves. I know people read these stories and make God out to be the bad, unloving father for punishing his children. They say, "If God is all loving, He wouldn't allow these bad things to happen." Well, if we really loved God, then we wouldn't disobey Him, right? And so if we're playing the blame game here, Israel had no one to blame but themselves. And Jeremiah was, unfortunately, the one delivering the message of how punishment would be doled out. We can all relate to this, can't we? Think back to your childhood. You smarted off to your mom, broke the rules, didn't obey, and she said, "When your father gets home, you're getting a spanking." Jeremiah was just the messenger, but His grace-filled, and difficult to hear, message was falling on deaf and defiant ears.
Jeremiah had been telling the people they were going to be captured by Babylon as their punishment. That was the bad part, and they didn't want to hear it. Of course, it didn't matter whether or not they wanted to hear it, it was happening. A done deal. King Zedekiah came to Jeremiah asking one more time, and I'm sure he was hoping for a different message. But Jeremiah said:
“This is what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground."
“But I am afraid to surrender,” the king said, “for the Babylonians may hand me over to the Judeans who have defected to them. And who knows what they will do to me!”
Jeremiah replied, “You won’t be handed over to them if you choose to obey the Lord. Your life will be spared, and all will go well for you. But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me...(a lot of really bad things will happen [Brittnye-paraphrase]...)." - Jeremiah 38:17-21
The question wasn't whether or not God would change his mind about Israel's captivity by Babylon, it was about whether or not Israel would submit to and trust God even though they didn't like what was going to happen. Because God asks us to surrender to His will all the time, not just when it's easy or convenient or when we feel like surrendering. He asks us to surrender to His will when we don't like it, when we don't understand it, when it doesn't match up with our own will. Do you think for a moment Israel wanted to be captured by Babylon? Do you think this was part of their plan? But sometimes God allows things to happen that aren't part of, and even derail, our plans and we have to really listen to Him. We can't be like Israel and miss the hope of the message because we're too mad about what lies ahead. God's grace is woven into every part of His will, and it is not absent from the valleys that He leads us through. Blessing await when we surrender, even when it gets hard.
Jesus tells us that when we lose our life, when we give it up to Him, we find it. Sometimes surrender really does feel like loss, like defeat, but when we surrender to Jesus He promises life. Life for those who choose to obey, who choose to follow, and who choose to trust. It may be scary, but the choice is ours. We have to look past the difficulty and remember that He who promises is faithful.
The prophet Jeremiah had his work cut out for him. All of the prophets did. They had hard jobs. They had to carry God's messages to the people, and those messages usually included quite a bit of judgment and warnings of pending wrath. No one likes to be called to the mat when it comes to sin, and Jeremiah's crowd hated what he had to say to the point that they tried to kill him. But he faithfully kept speaking truth despite the death attempts and threats because what he had to say was important. It was straight from the mouth of God, and if the people really wanted to live they'd listen. Of course, we know by now that God's people had a knack for tuning him out, so I suppose we really shouldn't be surprised by their reactions. Regardless, God was showing His people grace by sending Jeremiah and it was their choice of whether or not they would receive it.
Israel was back to their old, sinful ways. Raise your hand if you are surprised by that fact. It's no surprise, by now, that Israel can't help but be disobedient, and we all know what happens when we disobey. Israel had absolutely brought punishment upon themselves. I know people read these stories and make God out to be the bad, unloving father for punishing his children. They say, "If God is all loving, He wouldn't allow these bad things to happen." Well, if we really loved God, then we wouldn't disobey Him, right? And so if we're playing the blame game here, Israel had no one to blame but themselves. And Jeremiah was, unfortunately, the one delivering the message of how punishment would be doled out. We can all relate to this, can't we? Think back to your childhood. You smarted off to your mom, broke the rules, didn't obey, and she said, "When your father gets home, you're getting a spanking." Jeremiah was just the messenger, but His grace-filled, and difficult to hear, message was falling on deaf and defiant ears.
Jeremiah had been telling the people they were going to be captured by Babylon as their punishment. That was the bad part, and they didn't want to hear it. Of course, it didn't matter whether or not they wanted to hear it, it was happening. A done deal. King Zedekiah came to Jeremiah asking one more time, and I'm sure he was hoping for a different message. But Jeremiah said:
“This is what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the Babylonian officers, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned down. But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground."
“But I am afraid to surrender,” the king said, “for the Babylonians may hand me over to the Judeans who have defected to them. And who knows what they will do to me!”
Jeremiah replied, “You won’t be handed over to them if you choose to obey the Lord. Your life will be spared, and all will go well for you. But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me...(a lot of really bad things will happen [Brittnye-paraphrase]...)." - Jeremiah 38:17-21
The question wasn't whether or not God would change his mind about Israel's captivity by Babylon, it was about whether or not Israel would submit to and trust God even though they didn't like what was going to happen. Because God asks us to surrender to His will all the time, not just when it's easy or convenient or when we feel like surrendering. He asks us to surrender to His will when we don't like it, when we don't understand it, when it doesn't match up with our own will. Do you think for a moment Israel wanted to be captured by Babylon? Do you think this was part of their plan? But sometimes God allows things to happen that aren't part of, and even derail, our plans and we have to really listen to Him. We can't be like Israel and miss the hope of the message because we're too mad about what lies ahead. God's grace is woven into every part of His will, and it is not absent from the valleys that He leads us through. Blessing await when we surrender, even when it gets hard.
Jesus tells us that when we lose our life, when we give it up to Him, we find it. Sometimes surrender really does feel like loss, like defeat, but when we surrender to Jesus He promises life. Life for those who choose to obey, who choose to follow, and who choose to trust. It may be scary, but the choice is ours. We have to look past the difficulty and remember that He who promises is faithful.
"I long for your rescue, Lord, so I have obeyed your commands." - Psalm 119:166
Comments
Post a Comment