You Are Not Your Own

"What? Know ye not  that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of  God, and ye are not your own?" (1st Corinthians 6:19, emphasis added)

We Christians here in America have a strange concept. We seem to think that our lives belong to us. We have built a complex, but totally unbiblical doctrine about the possession of our lives. This strange concept has permeated every area of our actions. Ridiculously, we seem to think that as long as we are doing our best to glorify God, we can really do whatever we want. We’ve lost the total, one hundred percent surrender to Jesus Christ’s total sovereignty and power in our lives. Rather than being men and women who are completely controlled by our King and spending our lives for His glory, doing exactly what He wants, we’ve become a bunch of miserable replicas. By trying to control our own lives, we’ve lost the wonder, the glory, and the sheer joy of following God’s plan down to the minutest detail!

Ignatius of Antioch once said, “Few souls understand what God would accomplish in them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.” When we surrender ourselves to Christ, then He can shape us into the men and women He wants us to be. It is when we are radically committed to Jesus Christ and His glory that we can truly say:

Have Thine own way, Lord, have thine own way, Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me, after Thy will, while I am waiting yielded and still.

On Monday afternoon, January 2^nd 2012, I radically surrendered my life to Jesus Christ at a local Bible School. I had been saved for most of my life, but I had not been wholly dedicated to Christ’s will in my life. But since that time, I can echo Jim Elliot when he said, “Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!”

It is time for Christians to stand up and say, “No more!” It’s time for the return of Christianity that realizes that God knows best! If we want to see an end put to the miserable, defeated Christianity that prevails in the churches today, it’s time to surrender to Jesus’ will and His perfect plan! Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, suffered and died to purchase us! When will we see that we belong to Him and place Him on the throne of our lives?

“What are you afraid of? Let God act. Abandon yourself to Him. You will suffer, but you will suffer with love, peace and consolation. You will fight, but you can carry off the victory, and God Himself, after having fought with you, will crown you with His own hand.” ~Francois Fenelon

After all, you are not your own. You and I belong to Jesus.


In Christ,
Elijah