After I started following Jesus, I began to realize that He was requiring me to surrender everything I am and have to Him. I can surrender but I can’t break myself; only He can do that. I can yield myself to Him by abandoning all of my desires, but He is the only one that can complete the work. I have done many things which I thought were sacrificial in an attempt to find the place of rest He promised, but none of them were able to produce the result for which I was pursuing. It wasn’t until I was willing to embrace everything that happens in my life with a heart of thanksgiving and gratefulness that I was able to find that place of peace and joy that I was seeking. I don’t know what will happen in the future, whether it is in the next few moments, hours or years away, but I know now that He has brought me to a place for which I had sought for a long time. It is the deepest kind of prayer and communion with Him that is above and beyond, deeper and greater than anything I ever dreamed about. Now my heart is overflowing with gratefulness for the love He has for me, my family and friends.
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
John 12:24-25
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual£ act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
Romans 12:1-2