“Simplified living is about more than doing less. It’s being who God called us to be, with a wholehearted, single-minded focus. It’s walking away from innumerable lesser opportunities in favor of the few to which we’ve been called and for which we’ve been created. It’s a lifestyle that allow us, when our heads hit the pillow at night, to reflect with gratitude that our day was well invested and the varied responsibilities of our lives are in order.”
-Bill Hybels, Simplify, pp. 2-3.
We all have areas of life where “our way” is not “God’s way.”
What are those areas of life for you?
A life surrendered to God’s will, way, and word is the path of least resistance.
Matthew 11:29-30 New International Version(NIV)
Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me,
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light.”
Living a life surrendered to God’s will, way, and word produces joy, fulfillment, direction, purpose, meaning and rest for our souls.
SURRENDER:
- To cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority.
- To agree to stop fighting, hiding, and resisting.
- To yield (something) to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand.
Isaiah 55:7-9(NIV)
Let the wicked [those who oppose God] forsake [surrender] their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Surrender is not really about giving something up, it’s about letting go of something lesser (our thoughts, desires, and ways) for something greater (God’s thoughts, desires and ways).
HOW DO WE SURRENDER
- Have to have a desire to know, do, and practice God’s will, way, and word in our lives.
- Make time for God.
- Take an inventory of our lives.
- Find out what God’s word, will, and way is for this particular thing and practice it.
- Repeat the process.