Absolute Surrender
Posted by James MacDonald on August 7, 2007 10:54 AM | Comments (8)Well, I have made a vow. God helping me, I am going to spend at least one hour per day this month, alone with the Lord in prayer and in His Word. My goal is to reach a "new high watermark" in my relationship with God. I am asking the Spirit to guide me through a fierce moral and spiritual inventory. I am going to review every component of my walk with God for a lapse into 'form without function.' Why am I doing this????
Reasons for My 30-Day Vow
1) It is biblical. In Acts 21:23-26, Paul took a vow with several other men. It was a vow of consecration to God. It was a specified amount of time to diligently seek God.
2) It is necessary. I find I need a periodic crisis in my relationship with the Lord. I frequently feel the need to jump-start my sense of urgency lest complacency or indifference, or compromise creep in at the corners of my character. James 4:8, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
3) It is profitable. I have never regretted a seasonal vow of intentional spiritual pursuit. I have always profited and wondered at the end why I do not do so more frequently. Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."
4) It is critical. Our church is entering a more important season of ministry than we have for some time. We are launching our new campus in Elgin this fall and I want to make sure that I have my "A" game. I don't want to presume upon the Lord's favor, I want to seek it with my whole heart. Psalm 14:2, "The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God."
5) It is pleasing to God. Repeatedly in Scripture we are told as believers to seek the Lord. Isaiah 55:6, "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near." The repeated invitation to seek the Lord makes it clear that such action is in fact pleasing to God and promotes His grace and blessing in our lives.
I am re-reading the book, Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray. It has been a classic for more than 100 hundred years for good reason. It calls us to the satisfying depth of seeking the Lord rather than being content with where we are. I am really going for it this month. Want to come with?
james
Comments
Posted by: Jeff | August 7, 2007 12:07 PM
Wow, My wife and I are with you Pastor James. We are in the midst of a real trial in our marriage and with God's grace we are surviving and growing through this season. Going through something like this, we are reminded that God is about change and growth spiritually. We were both counselled by our Harvest pastor to pray and read the Word for one hour daily. The thing that jumped out at us was "one hour" daily. In the week we have been doing this, it has helped me to sift the unimportant things of my day - out - and connect with my Lord in a fresh passionate way. Thoughts that were destructive and hurtful are being replaced with truth, promise and hope. Thank you for doing this in a way of support and as motivation to pursue God faithfully and obediently.
Jeff
Great to speak with you in T.O.
Posted by: Fran | August 8, 2007 08:04 PM
Hi James
This is the first time I've listened to you on the computer thanks to a great friend from church. I've been reluctant to approach someone with my concern about being a starving Christian in a church I've been going to for 7 years. We've had a new Pastor join us earlier this year, he's very intelligent, a great entertainer but he just doesn't deliver God's word to me in the way that leaves me feeling fulfilled, hopeful, moved, loved and especially wanting to go out and live for God and walk in his word. I'm a person that has poor reading, comprehension and retention skills and depend greatly on Sunday morning service. I'd hate the thought of looking elsewhere for another church. Any suggestions. Thanks Fran
Posted by: Deb | August 8, 2007 10:42 PM
Dear Pastor James,
I was surfing the Harvest website and clicked this link the other day. I came back to read more today. Absolute surrender – I don’t know what that is! I wish that I could. I keep praying and asking for God to search my heart and change me. I know he’s working in my life and his Word is food for my soul. But I keep starving myself and then filling up – it’s a vicious cycle. I know that Jesus Christ will provide all my needs but I keep going back to get my legs cut off. I am looking forward to hearing your series, hopefully I’ve had enough.
May God continue to use you as a vessel to pierce my heart with His word.
Posted by: Myron | August 9, 2007 01:07 PM
Dear pastor James, it's great that you share your commitment goals on this blog site and I thank you for the privilage of being able to voice my opinion. I hope if anything I offer is out of line or lends to spiritual pollution you will help me understand my error. May GOD honor your vow and draw you closer, so that you can keep us all on that narrow road that leads to HIS LOVE. I would like to recommend the web site "www.e-sword.net" a copy of Absolute Surrender can be found there for free. Warmest regards
Posted by: Jan | August 14, 2007 11:32 AM
Hi Pastor James-
Thank you for your commitment to our Lord and to all of us.
I am joining you on your 30 day vow. In addition to our Bible reading plan I have also started reading Absolute Surrender and The Lord's Work Done In The Lord's Way.
WOW!!! I hate to admit how badly I needed to read the latter but I am thankful for your suggesting it. I truly love my job (drug detox/rehab) but recently have been very angry and frustrated at work. As I was reading yesterday, I wept and asked for forgiveness. I was making this about me and not God.
Not such a coincidence that this verse had been on my heart for a few weeks before you spoke about absolute surrender:
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right, perservering, and steadfast spirit within me. Psalm 51:10
Thank you again, Pastor James. Praying for you and your family.
Posted by: Wayne D. Fulton | August 15, 2007 03:17 PM
Hey Pastor MacDonald,
I love the spirit of your 30 day vow. I just stumbled onto it a moment ago, but I feel the Holy spirit drawing me to join you.
Thanks you for the leadership that you are injecting into the Christian comminity at such a crucial moment in our history.
Posted by: Don | August 17, 2007 04:53 PM
Absolute Surrender \ Humility
It's a matter of the will. I mean things like sacrifice looks like absolute surrender, but my will can still be stubborn. It's turning over my will to His will. An example would be when you give tithes. I might place my 10% in the offering, yet in my heart, despising that fact I did it. Better yet, refusing to put into the basket according to how God prospered me. Or maybe it’s going over to someone whom I have offended, and asking them for forgiveness.
Absolute surrender is the place we come to, that looks like the Garden of Gethsemane. Surely this was the place where Jesus demonstrates His absolute surrender to the Father? "Not my will but your will be done."(Luke 22:42)
Obedience is the key! That is why God has said, "to obey is better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 15:22). Again, we must look at Abraham when he offered up his son. The fruit of his absolute surrender was obedience. Surrender leads us to faith. When one surrenders his will for God's will, faith is then supplied. Have "Have this attitude in you that was in Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross."
Absolute Surrender! Now, or later? One day every knee shall bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord to the Glory of the Father (Philippians 2:10, 11). Someone has once said, "We will all bow, it's not a matter of if, its when". We can surrender now, while the provisions for Grace, Forgiveness, and Power are available, or later, when the door is shut.
I pray that I will not see the 30 day trial of Absolute surrender like a diet plan, but rather, as an absolute necessity for fellowship with my Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus asks me this question to me "Could you not stay awake with me for one hour." (Matthew 26:40).
Posted by: Denise | August 24, 2007 12:47 PM
Pastor James:
Agreeance is found with you in that I also need periodic times of crisis in my relationship with the Lord. Others will be joining in "coming with" to the Lord in a vow to Him, and I one of them. Thank you for your commitment to boldly, unapologetically challenging others in their walk with the Lord.
It was a pleasure to meet you at the convention in Chattanooga. Again, you are an amazing vessel for the Lord. You and your family are prayed for.
Denise