Calvary’s cross | HOPE & LIGHT

This week, we are coming to the end of our study of I Give Up: The Secret Joy of a Surrendered Life, by Laura Story.

Christian author Katherine J Walden said concerning surrender:

“The enemy knows that without surrender, we will never experience the freedom that God offers us. Without surrender, we will remain spiritually malnourished, ill and confused. Without surrender, our foxholes become prisons of the enemy’s making. Our lack of full surrender limits God’s ability to both work in our lives and through our lives.

“God’s call to surrender is not an intimidating, angry bark heard from the other side of a battlefield. God’s invitation to surrender is expressed through the example of his Son, Jesus, as described in Philippians 2:5-11.”

“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians‬ ‭2:5-11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

The call to surrender is a call to live like Jesus lived. He willingly took on human flesh, taking on the very nature of a servant. He humbled himself by becoming obedient, even to the point of death on the Cross of Calvary. His choice to always do whatever his heavenly Father asked enabled him to be victorious.

The decision to live a lifestyle of surrender to God can simply be described as following Jesus. And by making this choice, we are set free to live in the freedom God offers us, to walk in the victory he gained.

A lifestyle of surrender is also a life of putting others before ourselves. As Laura Story says, surrender has a “ripple effect.” If you’ve ever thrown a stone in the water, you’ve noticed the ripple effect – with concentric circles going out from the place of contact. How we live matters, not only in our personal lives but also in the lives of those around us. As we follow Jesus’ example, we aren’t the only ones who are changed.

Philippians 2:5 mentions that the mindset of Christ Jesus is to make a difference in our relationships with one another. And to understand more clearly what that means, we just need to look at the two verses right before this passage about the mindset of Jesus.

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” Philippians‬ ‭2:3-4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

4192F283-55C5-40CA-8325-615FECDF0AFD

I wanted to close today with Laura Story’s latest song, one that reminds us of the victory that Jesus won on our behalf. As she says, “Our fears and our failures hang dead on the cross.” And because we were crucified with him, we are able to share in His life and His victory. Following Jesus is choosing the lifestyle he lived, a life of daily surrender to the will of God. And doing so means sharing in His victory, which includes all of the benefits that are a part of that.

I used to wish I had lived during the time when Jesus walked in Jerusalem and the surrounding area and could have actually heard Him teaching. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have been among the crowd as Jesus stood on the Galilean hillside now known as the Mount of Beatitudes, and began speaking these words most of us have read many times?

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:5-12)

But more recently, as I’ve begun an in-depth study on the Holy Spirit as a beginning step in writing a Bible study on the names and functions of the Holy Spirit for the small group I work with at our church, I’ve seen this a little differently. No, we can’t be a part of the large crowds that gathered to hear Jesus’ teaching. But because of the promise in today’s “I Am Not Alone” verses, we experience something even more amazing. If we have surrendered our lives to Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we have the Holy Spirit, also known as the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Jesus, living within us as our ever-present teacher.

The setting of today’s verses was Jesus’ last supper with His disciples, during which He warned that one of these gathered around Him as a trusted friend, Judas Iscariot, would betray Him and He also foretold of Peter’s coming denial. Jesus had just told His disciples He was leaving them, and their hearts were troubled.

Jesus was trying to reassure these who had walked so close to Him that He was leaving but He wasn’t leaving them alone.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16-17)

These verses told the original disciples that the Father would give them another Helper, another Counselor, Comforter, Teacher and Friend to be with them. A Helper of the same kind, The Spirit of truth who would teach them and guide them into all truth. And a couple chapters later in the Gospel of John, He explains it is to their advantage He is returning to the Father, because this Helper would not just walk beside them. He would live within them, to be their Teacher, and close Friend. And this indwelling Holy Spirit would empower them as they completed the work Jesus had appointed them to do.

The good news for us today is that these promises were not limited to these original disciples. If you have accepted Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on the Cross as payment in full for your sins and received Jesus as your Savior and Lord, these verses equally apply to you. You are Never Alone because God lives within you in the form of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth.