Recently,
while watching a video of a church service held in South America, I noticed
something I had never seen before in church. As the pastor passionately called
his flock to yield their lives to Jesus, one of the parishioners took a white
hankie out of his pocket and started waving it in the air. Then another, and
another. With tears running down their cheeks, they were expressing full
surrender to Christ.
But I
wonder if there was more to the moment than the flags of surrender. I think
they were waving flags of love to God. When God told His people to “love the Lord
your God” (Deut. 6:5), it was in the context of His urging them to surrender
their lives to Him.
From
God’s point of view, life with Him is far more than just trying to be good. It
is always about relationship—relationship in which surrender is the way we
express our grateful love to Him. Jesus, in amazing love for us, surrendered
Himself on the cross to rescue us from our helpless bondage to sin and set us
on a journey to all that is good and glorious.
We don’t
have enough words to tell God how much we love Him! So, let’s show Him our love
by surrendering our hearts and lives to follow Him.
Surrender
is God’s love language. (RBC)
