“Surrender of the heart to God
includes every possible way of obedience to God, because it means giving up
one’s very being to God’s good pleasure.” This is from Jean-Pierre de Caussade,
a French Jesuit priest who lived from the late 17th to the mid 18th
century. This evokes thoughts of what Jesus said. “For those who want to save
their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the
sake of the gospel, will save it” (Mark 8:35).
Of
course, “those who lose their life for my sake” can mean many things. James,
the older of the sons of Zebedee and one of the original 12, was beheaded by
Herod because he was Jesus’ disciple (Acts 12:1-12). Christians in China in the
late 20th century experienced imprisonment due to their faith
commitment. In these and many other cases, to lose one’s life for Jesus’
sake, was played out in real life, with faithful disciples literally dying
or having their lives completely upended.
How do
these words of Jesus apply in the lives of 21st century American
Christians? We don’t realistically fear imprisonment or bodily harm just because
we have put our faith in Jesus. We are not punished for having claimed the
Christian faith. In fact, every president in the history of the United States
has claimed Christianity as their religious affiliation. Christians in America
are free to express their faith.
De
Caussade gets at my understanding of Jesus’ insistence that to follow him, we
must give up our lives. In societies like ours, where Christians are not
persecuted, I think it comes down to personal
surrender. What area of your life have you kept from Jesus. Does He get all of
you, except that portion of the day you devote to online porn or online
gambling? Do you partake of those harmful vices and just keep Jesus out of it?
Or maybe
your marriage, or your sex life outside of marriage. You claim to be under the
lordship of Jesus everywhere, except your bedroom. There, you’ll make your own
decisions. The way of Jesus is the way you have committed to walk, but you
forget about that when you get to your bedroom door. He is not welcome into
your most intimate places.
Or maybe
the place you withhold your faith is your money. You attend worship. You read
the Bible. You give to some causes and give to the church. You volunteer.
However, money is very important to you, and the decisions you make in life
indicate that your money rules how you live out your faith. When we die to
self, lose our lives for his sake, then Jesus is lord of our money. It’s
not the other way around.
You could
think of other examples in life where one resists fully submitting to Christ. You
could think of examples from your own life. That resistance is a great tension
in one’s walk with the Lord. This year, during Lent, release that resistance.
Fully surrender your heart, your mind, your life to Christ. As Jesus said in
the first century AD, and the French priest reiterated in the 18th
century and many Chinese evangelicals demonstrated through personal sacrifice in
their lives in the 20th century, we lose our lives for Jesus’
sake and the sake of the Gospel. “Surrender of the heart to God includes
… giving up one’s very being to God’s
good pleasure.”
Consider
doing an audit of your life as a 2025 Lenten discipline. Identify an area you
have not surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus. Between now, Ash Wednesday,
March 5, and Easter Sunday, April 20, take intentional steps to surrender that
area you’ve identified. Discover the sweet freedom of surrendering to Christ
and living under his lordship.
