All or Nothing?
When Simon Peter
heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment…and plunged into the
sea. —John 21:7
Have
you ever had a crisis in your life in which you deliberately, earnestly, and
recklessly abandoned everything? It is a crisis of the will. You may come to
that point many times externally, but it will amount to nothing. The true deep
crisis of abandonment, or total surrender, is reached internally, not
externally. The giving up of only external things may actually be an indication
of your being in total bondage.
Have
you deliberately committed your will to Jesus Christ? It is a transaction of
the will, not of emotion; any positive emotion that results is simply a
superficial blessing arising out of the transaction. If you focus your
attention on the emotion, you will never make the transaction. Do not ask God
what the transaction is to be, but make the determination to surrender your
will regarding whatever you see, whether it is in the shallow or the deep,
profound places internally.
If
you have heard Jesus Christ’s voice on the waves of the sea, you can let your
convictions and your consistency take care of
themselves by concentrating on maintaining your intimate relationship to Him.
(Taken from Oswald Chambers – “My Utmost
for His Highest” April 17)