the safest and soundest thing to do…

you may still be under the illusion that you are in control of your life. but one day something tiny is going to happen in your finances or your family or your relationships or your health or your career, and it’s going to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger until finally you are confronted with the fact that you are not GOD. and you’re not in control of your life. and the safest and soundest thing to do is surrender yourself to your CREATOR and say, “JESUS CHRIST, YOU be at the driver’s wheel. YOU be in charge. YOU call the shots. YOU be the director, the chairman of the board in my life.” i hope you won’t wait until that happens and humble yourself before GOD.

some of you, possibly, have been in church all your lives. and you’re really a “good” person. you’re religious, and you know the prayers and the terminology, and everybody would think you’re a CHRISTian. but you’re not really because you’ve never really surrendered your total life to JESUS CHRIST. that’s why GOD brought you here to the front porch today, so you could do it. there is not a better time than right now to make that surrender. life is so much more focused when you do that. what would keep you from that? only one thing – arrogance, pride. “i’m going to call the shots. i’m going to be my own god.” and that is a fatal mistake. it puts you in opposition with the ONE who loves you, died for you and created you. why don’t you surrender your life to HIM right now?

today, you’ve realized you’ve never really surrendered your life to CHRIST. maybe you’ve even realized there’s a little more pride in your life than you thought. which of these four habits do you need to work on this week? how quickly do you adjust to the needs of others around you? do you give deference to their preference? how eager are you to listen and to learn from correction? do you get defensive? how quickly do you admit it when you are wrong? have you ever done that? it takes courage to be humble. how willing are you to surrender your plans to GOD? GOD says, the people that I treasure the most are the humble. if you want GOD’s blessing in your life, would you pray this prayer?

dear GOD, i want to be the kind of humble person that YOU can bless. i admit that i often do things out of selfishness and pride and what other people might think of me. i ask you to help me this week to practice these habits of humility. help me to give preference to others – their needs, their interests. help me to not always have my own way. help me to be open to correction and even criticism. help me to admit it when i’m wrong. today, i surrender all my life and plans to YOU. i want YOUr will for my life. help me to have a realistic view of both my strengths and my weaknesses. JESUS CHRIST, i turn over the controls of my life to YOU. and i humbly ask YOU to be the director of my life. i want to depend upon YOU from this day forward. in YOUr name i pray. amen.

just a thought from the front porch…

is GOD opposing or consulting?...

another way you can practice courageous humility is to practice surrendering your plans to GOD.

this is what we usually do. we make our plans without even consulting GOD. then we pray and ask GOD to bless our plans, which we didn’t ask HIM to be a part of. we assume that our plans are HIS will. then when our plans don’t happen on the timetable we want them to happen or they don’t happen at all, we get angry at GOD. that’s called pride. GOD hates pride. HE’s very serious about pride.

james 4.6-7 (cev) says, GOD opposes everyone who’s proud but HE gives grace to everyone who is humble. so surrender to GOD. you don’t want GOD to oppose you.

i can think of a lot of people i wouldn’t want to have as an opponent, opposing me. i would not want to be in a boxing ring opposed by evander holifield in his day. i would not want to be on a basketball court opposed by lebron james. i would not want to be opposed by bill gates at an auction. there’s no way i’m going to be winning that one.

but i really don’t want to be opposed by GOD, because there’s no way i’m going to win that battle. the bible says that when i am prideful, GOD is not just mildly irritated at me. HE’s in opposition to me at that very moment. i’m playing GOD. GOD’s opposed to me. i’m an enemy of GOD any time i get full of pride. that’s how serious it is. so he says, surrender yourself to GOD. what does it mean to surrender yourself and your plans to GOD?

romans 6.13 (tev) says, give yourselves to GOD and surrender your whole being to HIM to be used for HIS righteous purpose.

surrendering means, “GOD, i’m going with YOUr plans for my life, not my own. GOD, i’ve got plans, i’ve got dreams, i’ve got goals, i’ve got ambitions, but i know that YOU put me on this earth for a reason, for a purpose, and GOD, i’m going to intentionally choose YOUr plan for my life instead of my own. i know YOU’re not going to reveal it to me all at once. it’s going to come a little bit at a time, so i’m going to take it a step at a time, but i want to go with YOUr plan, not mine.” that’s humility. that’s called being humble, surrendering your plans to GOD.

just a thought from the front porch…