Sunday Night Musing: Surrender

Tonight we heard the story of Lazarus and the rich man. Sometimes I just want to hear about how the Scripture applies to my life, telling me what to do. Sometimes the debate of commentaries is tiresome. Tonight, my friend Toyna taught on this passage having us think about the places where we don't see the needs of others and how we may use our resources (time, talents, possessions) to help them.

She also shared that there used to be old Jewish folk tales about a rich man and a poor man who die like in the story Jesus tells. But the folk stories have the poor man going back to the living to give the rich man's family a warning about the after life and living well. Jesus, however, doesn't have that happen. He says that the living have the words of Moses and the prophets. If they don't believe them, then they won't believe even when someone rises from the dead. 

Jesus seems to be saying that we have all we need for faith. We've had Him rise from the dead. Even that wasn't enough for everyone to believe. 

Faith isn't about having enough proof. It's about where our heart is. If we're not ready to give up our own will and follow God's, then no amount of proof of His existence will matter. If we're not ready to surrender all to God, faith isn't really attainable.

I'm learning that surrender is a daily thing for me. Just because I gave my life to Christ once (okay, actually several times over the course of several summers at Bible camp), doesn't mean that I'm living like it each moment. Every day I have to choose to follow Jesus over doing what my own will wants to do.

Each morning I try to remember to pray a prayer of surrender. I don't always remember, but I try. Days seem to go a bit better when I do remember.

And while I'm surrendering I'm keeping my eyes open for the people God places in front of me to reach out to in what ever way they need. Or at least I'm trying.