Lord have Your way in me...

       During worship last Sunday morning, we were singing a song entitled: 'This is my desire.' Maybe you are familiar with it. But I think that it was the chorus that got my attention. Now, this is a song that I have been singing for years. It's a beautiful song of surrender to God. However, on this particular Sunday morning some of the words really started getting my attention. The chorus goes like this:
Lord I give You my heart, I give You my soul
I live for You alone
Every breath that I take, every moment I'm awake
Lord have Your way in me.
       For some reason as I sang the song, I really started paying attention and I realized that I really wasn't giving God my all. It was so easy to sing the song but was I really surrendering totally to God? So, as soon as I got the opportunity, I jotted down some thoughts so that I would not forget them. My thoughts went something like this: If even your spouse is more important to you than your love for God then you have not given God your whole self, your all. Reach the point where you are willing to give up your spouse, that person or thing that means so much to you, where you're willing to give them up for God.
       Now, I'm not talking about divorce or the destruction of relationships in your life or even giving up your dreams or goals or vision. I guess I'm simply saying that none of these people or things should ever be more important to you than God.  And if it reaches the point where, God forbid, He removes any of these from your life, you should be able to say: 'God I still love You. God I still trust You. God I'll still serve You.'
       I'm reminded of a movie that I absolutely love called 'Facing the Giants.' In this movie, the wife of the main character, a high school football coach, was struggling to get pregnant. She had gone to the hospital a number of times, it seemed, to take a pregnancy test but each time the results were negative. Finally, prompted by a friend to go to the hospital again because she had been feeling ill for some time, she went and had another pregnancy test done. Yes, the results came back negative again. As she got back to her vehicle outside, and with tears streaming down her face, she told God basically that she still loved Him and would still serve Him in spite of the results. Lo and behold it turned out that her results had gotten mixed up with someone else's and she was indeed pregnant! To me, not for God's sake but for her own, she had to finally surrender her deep desire for a child to God and acknowledge that even if she would not receive the desire of her heart, that desire would not be greater that her desire for God. It was only when she finally reached this point that she received the desire of her heart.
       If life doesn't work out quite the way you had hoped or planned or dreamed; if you never have children of your own; if you never achieve a particular goal; if you never get the home, or even job you want; if you never have the kind of marriage you've dreamed of; if you never even get married - if everything does not work out the way you had hoped, dreamed or imagined, you should still be able, from your heart, to say: God I'll still love You; God I'll still serve You; God I'll still worship and honour You with all my heart. That I think is total surrender to God, when you don't allow anything or anyone to dictate your service to Him, your love for Him, your commitment to Him. You give Him everything, even if it requires a sacrifice or sacrifices, even if it means giving up what's important to you so that He can give you HIS BEST for you ...
     

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