3.14.11

Romans 6:16

16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey-whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?


Dear friend,

Lately I've been thinking about what it means to fully submit ourselves to God. And what does it mean to be free in Christ? We know it's in our best interest to trust God with our lives and our hearts long for the freedom that can only be found in Christ, yet somehow we always seem to do things our way. Our small group Bible study uses the term "all-in" like in a poker game, but knowing we've chosen a sure thing by putting our lives in the hands of Jesus. Today as I opened 'My Utmost for His Highest', the topic of yielding was there staring back at me and I had to share these wise words from Oswald Chambers.

"The first thing I must be willing to admit when I begin to examine what controls and dominates me is that I am the one responsible for having yielded myself to whatever it may be. If I am a slave to myself, I am to blame because somewhere in the past I yielded to myself. Likewise, if I obey God I do so because at some point in my life I yielded myself to Him.

If a child gives in to selfishness, he will find it to be the most enslaving tyranny on earth. There is no power within the human soul itself that is capable of breaking the bondage of the nature created by yielding. For example, yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust, and although you may hate yourself for having yielded, you become enslaved to that thing. (Remember what lust is- "I must have it now," whether it is the lust of the flesh or the lust of the mind.) No release or escape from it will ever come from any human power, but only through the power of redemption. You must yield yourself in utter humiliation to the only One who can break the dominating power in your life, namely, the Lord Jesus Christ. ". . . He has anointed Me . . . to proclaim liberty to the captives . . ." (Luke 4:18 and Isaiah 61:1).

When you yield to something, you will soon realize the tremendous control it has over you. Even though you say, "Oh, I can give up that habit whenever I like," you will know you can't. You will find that the habit absolutely dominates you because you willingly yielded to it. It is easy to sing, "He will break every fetter," while at the same time living a life of obvious slavery to yourself. But yielding to Jesus will break every kind of slavery in any person's life." -Oswald Chambers

I was reminded of the hope we have in Jesus and the power He has to transform lives! I pray we all seek the freedom found only by fully yielding our lives to King Jesus!

In Christ,
-Robert

http://www.utmost.org Daily Devotional by Oswald Chambers