{"id":233,"date":"2006-03-13T11:10:41","date_gmt":"2006-03-13T15:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/?p=233"},"modified":"2006-03-13T11:10:41","modified_gmt":"2006-03-13T15:10:41","slug":"absolute-surrender-or-irresistible-grace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.drslewis.org\/camille\/2006\/03\/13\/absolute-surrender-or-irresistible-grace\/","title":{"rendered":"Absolute Surrender or Irresistible Grace"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The condition of God’s blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.”<\/div>\n
\n
Andrew Murray, Absolute Surrender<\/em><\/div>\n
\n
It’s no surprise that Moody Press publishes Murray’s text. And this sounds so very familiar to us as the decendents of the revivalists. But it’s just not in Scripture.<\/div>\n
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God’s grace isn’t something you “get” when you’re good enough. Then it wouldn’t be grace! God’s plan doesn’t fall apart if you fail to wear pantyhose on the right\u00a0day. God’s bigger than I am.\u00a0If I had to wait on my being good enough, I’d never get God’s blessing. But that catch-22 is so effective at selling books, at garnering campers, at keeping us in our hamster wheel. But we just get so tired of trying to measure up<\/a>.<\/div>\n
\n
This explains weird reactions and comments I’ve gotten over the years. I saw people scratch their heads when an “outsider” clearly received a wonderful, long-awaited blessing from God. The cognitive dissonance\u00a0for many around me\u00a0was startling. Did he repent? Was his action acceptable in God’s sight? Maybe we<\/em><\/strong> are the ones that are wrong? It’s NONE of those. God blesses us in spite of us all the time. He’s not keeping a list and checking it twice and going to find out who’s naughty and nice.<\/div>\n
\n
After Elise was born, I got a few of these “talking out of school” comments. We felt so feeble, so very frail. I was so weak that I didn’t even know how to pray for God’s help. I just didn’t know what to pray. But people were saying to us, “You’re doing so great. It’s clear that God is blessing you because of what you’ve done.” You, you, you. . . . I remember weeping in prayer in the shower, “God, I don’t know what they are talking about. I haven’t done a thing. I don’t feel like I’ve done anything. But if I’m doing something, PLEASE tell me because I want to keep doing it. Please! Please SHOW ME!”<\/div>\n
\n
And He showed me. It wasn’t me at all. It was totally Him. He was doing all the work. He had scooped us up in His arms and was carrying us all the way through. It didn’t matter if we had been kicking and screaming. God’s bigger than our big feelings. He’s not an exacting civil\u00a0judge that holds back His conclusion in our favor until we walk just the right way or wear just the right thing. He’s a Daddy that sees His child with a bump on his head or an ear infection and snuggles him until he’s better in spite of the tears and irrationality. His law is love and His gospel is peace.<\/div>\n
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God can handle hard questions. God can handle the big feelings. Look at Moses, Job, Habakkuk, and Jonah. His blessing is not about us. His grace is just that — Grace.<\/div>\n
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“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.<\/div>\n
\n
“God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.”<\/div>\n
\n
Romans 8<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 “The condition of God’s blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. 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