It’s a good question. Let us consider, what does one’s life consist of?
Your body. Your mind. Your soul.
That’s the components if you like, of what we are. Yet when giving our lives to Jesus Christ, in order for him to have control and Mastery over our lives, to choose the direction and destination and everything therein, we may also consider more deeply the aspects of self we are handing over.
Let us include all that we have ever done. So then, we hand him our past.
Our sins. Or successes. Our failures. Our mistakes. Our wrongdoings. Our childhood traumas, our education, every harsh word we ever said, every unkind thing we ever did, ever loss of control, raised voice, act of violence, every theft, every injustice we ever did, every judgment we ever made about another, every crude profanity, every sexual act, every immoral act, every lie, every profane word. All guilt. All resentment. Every ill we ever received. Every unforgiven act received and given. The hurt we did. The hurt we received. Our health. All of it
If all these and more are rooms in the house of our lives, we must, when handing over the keys and deeds, hand him everything.
All our money. Ahh there’s a hard one, yes. Rare indeed for a ‘rich’ man to enter the Kingdom of God. Why? He cannot hand over the storehouse, the treasure room, the chest of gold he spent a lifetime working for and hoarding onto. He cannot hand it to God. Why? Because he fears God may tell him to do as he told the rich man in the gospel, “Go, sell everything you have, give all you have to the poor and return and follow me.” Matthew 19:21
I believe if the rich man had said “Lord, have it all, take it all, right now, you give it to the poor, or throw it into the sea, do as you will, I give it you all and now please may I follow you?” I believe he would have followed Jesus that moment. The point wasn’t to give the money to the poor. The poor will always be with you. The point was to remove the money from the heart of the man, and thereby have only Christ. The money was an obstacle, and Jesus saw this, and that’s why he said what he said.
Give everything you own to Jesus. Everything. Now. Everything.
What was that resistance? What was it you felt fear of, attachment for? That’s the thing that you must certainly hand over. Even as you do so, saying to the Lord, Lord, this I find hard to give to you, please however take it from my hand and heart, I give you all, including this. Even your sons and daughters.
What else must we hand over when we give our lives to Him?
Our past. Our present. Our every material thing. Our everything. Our sins. Our thoughts. Our hopes. Our ambitions. Our present, ever lived continuous and forever. Our future. Everything in that future.
…to be continued.