Lent as Surgical Repair
(This message is also available at: http://pastorjimdorton.blogspot.com/)
I’ve heard people say that submitting to God was difficult because they are
“control freaks”, or some other phrase that explains their difficulty in releasing control.
Part of me gets that, part of me say’s “baloney”,
The part of me that gets it does so because I have some of those tendencies myself, from time to time, but the part that says “baloney” wins. I don’t know anyone who really tries to control everything in their lives. We put our lives in other peoples hands all the time. Pilots. Politicians. Other drivers.
Surgeons.
I’ve spent a lot of time with surgeons lately. What God spoke to me yesterday as I lay down on the table was how completely I was surrendering; how completely I was giving up any control. One may opt in or out of many things in order to maintain a sense of control. However, refusing a necessary operation is to one’s own detriment. And so, you strip down, take the IV, and go to sleep, knowing that your body and your life is in someone else’s hands, and you have zero control. But, you do it to feel better, or to be healed, or maybe even to live. And so it is with ourselves and God. If we want to feel better, if we want to be healed, if we want to live, we submit ourselves, wholly, to Him.
I’ll shut up now and let the Scriptures speak:
It is the LORD your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. Deuteronomy 13:4
Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you that it may go well with you. Jeremiah 7:23
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4: 7- 8
In the flesh, even Jesus turned it over to His Father:
To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. 1 Peter 2: 21 - 25
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 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! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5-11
Until tomorrow, God willing, Pastor Jim
P.S.
Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:13
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