My Life is Not My Own

Choosing to follow Jesus and live a life that is God-glorifying is a huge step.  It is like one day, getting up, leaving everything you own and everything you know, and following Him.  You may not leave your earthly possessions immediately, but you come to the realization that they are confined to this life.  You may not actually leave your home, but you know that your hope is set on a new home, one with your father in heaven.

You also lose your life.  It is not a physical death, it is a death to earthly things.  And a spiritual rebirth - or a birth into the spiritual life that God has planned for you.

Then that's the next part: You've left one life behind, and you have the opportunity to give the new life up to the one who designed you.

This lyricist says it beautifully:

I lean not on my own understanding.

My life is in the hands of the maker of heaven.

I give it all to you God,

trusting that you'll make something beautiful out of me.

________

Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him,

who have been called according to His purpose. 

We are broken people in a broken world.  God does not break things and repair them.  He takes what we have broken, and renews us.  God is the redeemer.  If we were whole already, and satisfied with that, then there would be nothing to redeem.  

Giving your life up to God is not handing a puppeteer your strings.   You still have the gift of free will, and you still choose to freely love Him.  In Hebrews, God is referred to as the "author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).  I like to think of giving up my life to God as handing Him over the pen, and saying write me into your story. 

So what does this mean when  things happen in our lives that cause us pain and heartbreak?  Giving your life up to God doesn't mean you have to pretend like tragedy isn't just that - tragic.  When you see storms destroying entire cities and disease and hunger ravaging throughout the world, you do not have to simply shrug your shoulders and accept it.  You are not giving your life up to a God that will be careless with you or any of His children.  You are not giving your life up to a God who relishes in your heartbreak or suffering.  You are giving your life up to the comforter and the healer.

  

So what does that life look like?  It looks like us choosing His will.  It looks like us trusting Him through the brokenness.  It looks like trusting in His plan to prosper us, and believing that He will do that on His own timeline.

~SP