Surrender, Repentance, Obedience and Devotion

I was reading some of my previous blogs this morning and I am telling you I blessed myself. LOL! When I am reminded of all the cool supernatural stuff God has done for me I get so excited in my Spirit. I am reminded of His love for me and my love for Him and it makes me want to serve Him even more. However, while I was reading, I realized something that I have failed to share with my readers; the surrender, the repentance and the devotion that comes before “walking in favor” and receiving all of these blessings.

It is true, I have conquered many mountains, literal and figurative, I have overcome every obstacle that has been placed before me thus far, I have been blessed above and beyond what I know I deserve and yet God is still blessing me. However this is a two sided relationship. I did not just wake up one day and start walking in favor. It has been a process; a process that started 19 years ago. The short version is, I walked into a little church, totally and completely recognized what a sinner I was, cried profusely while kneeling at a beautiful hand carved altar and gave my life to Jesus. After that I spent as much time as I could getting to know my Saviour on a deeper level. This meant bible studies, reading my bible on my own, allowing elders in the church to correct me when I was wrong and being open to letting God do the work in my life that He wanted to do. It was definitely a struggle the first 10 years, but I am so glad God never gave up on me or me on Him because now I know that I know that I know we are walking together. (Yes I said 10 years, I was a stubborn little thing!)

Deuteronomy 30:16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

Do not be mistaken, living the life of a Christian is hard. It is easy to say “I believe in Jesus”, but to live like you believe in Jesus is a whole nother ball game. My personal opinion to why we have so many defeated Christians walking around is because they can never get passed the lip service to actual works service. Obedience is key to having a working, faithful and blessed life with the Lord. To receive the promises and the blessings that are in the bible you have to be obedient to its words.This is where the wheat gets separated from the tares. (Matthew 13) Those who have been obedient to Christ and sewn the seeds of obedience will reap the rewards, those who don’t sew in obedience will not reap the rewards of it but will reap the consequences of their disobedience.

Every morning when I wake up I look at it as a new opportunity to give myself completely and totally to God. I am thankful that my eyes have opened and I have one more day to be a wife, a mother, and a vessel for the Lord. I say to Him “God I am your servant, what can I do for you today?”.  Whether I have to or not (because some believe once is enough), I ask daily for forgiveness of my sins. I actually do this on an as needed basis throughout the day, yes the whole day. Meaning if I have a displeasing thought, sinful action, sinful word, etc. I repent. Sound exhausting? It isn’t. It has become a natural part of my day and my walk with the Lord.  I talk to the Lord all day every day just like He were standing right next to me, because He lives inside of me. (1 Thessalonians 5:17 pray without ceasing,) This scripture has resonated in my heart for years. Prayer is communication with God and therefore I communicate with Him all day.

God is the first one I talk to when I wake up in the morning and as I say my morning prayers, sometimes short, sometimes longer depending on my three kiddos and husband, I acknowledge He is the head of my life. After the kids have left for school and the hubby has left for work, the 18 animals are fed (no, seriously 18!) I sit down for my “soaking” time with the Lord. I do talk to God all the while I’m feeding animals, praying blessings over my family as they leave for the day etc, but my soaking time is when it is an all out me and the Holy Spirit God time. Sometimes I dance, sometimes I sing, sometimes I just fall on the floor face down and weep. I surrender myself to the will of my Father. I thank Him, I praise Him, I tell Him I love Him and this goes on for as long as I am lead by the Spirit. Not every day is the same but my heart is that I can always carve out time during the day for just me and God. I can be totally raw before Him and know that He sees my heart and my obedience. I love this little saying from Joyce Meyer, “I may not be where I need to be, but thank God I’m not where I used to be”. I use this time to thank Him for continuing to work out the imperfections in my life while still using me as His vessel. I acknowledge my flaws and ask Him to show me what I cannot see. It is a time of complete repentance and surrender.

I can tell you every victory, every climbed mountain, every testimony I share was preceded by a valley, a trial, a test, a storm, or a direct order that required obedience, repentance and sacrifice. No it is not easy. But I can tell you from experience it IS worth it. God is a God that He shall not lie. When you read the promises that are given to us through His mighty Word you can bet your life that He will be faithful to follow through on them when you live your life lined up with His Words. This does not mean that you have to be perfect, because none of us will reach that status until we reach heaven, but we are made perfect through Christ Jesus and the blood that was shed for our sins. Therefore, lining ourselves up with His Word should be something we long for and desire on a daily basis.

When you look at the big picture, giving up material things to obtain the supernatural gifts of the Spirit should be a no brainer. What we give up in the natural is absolutely nothing compared to what we gain in the Spiritual. And then just because He can, God blesses us in the natural too; how awesome is He! When I carve out alone time for me and God every day I make a choice to give up what I would be doing with that time so I can give that time to God. Sometimes it is just playing a game on my phone, sometimes it’s missing out on something I really want to do or a place I really want to go, but not once have I said, man I wish I had done “....” instead of spending time with God! Not once!

I want to encourage you today to surrender yourself completely and totally to God. Repent, humble yourself before Him and start to take quality time out of your day every day to spend with Him. Read your bible and draw closer to Him. You will be surprised how much faster you climb your mountains and how the troubles of this world don’t bother you as much as they used to. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!