Jesus, I Surrender AllSample

Renovation of the Heart Follows a Reliable Pattern

So far in this reading plan, we have considered that our life is like a house with many rooms. Each room in our house- represents who we are at a heart level formed by a world set against the ways of God. Indeed we have been redeemed by the blood of Christ but require a complete renovation of our hearts.

Some rooms in our house have a sign on the door that reads "anger," "greed," or "comparison," each representing points of our unlikeness to Christ. Still, other rooms display a sign on the door that reads "unloving," "lacks joy," or "void of peace," representing an area of our heart that has yet to "take on" the character of Christ. Renovation of our hearts into the image of Christ follows a reliable pattern - revelation, surrender, and transformation. God has a role in the process, but so do you and me.

God always makes the first move. He is the one knocking at the door of each of the closed-off rooms in our house. Each knock represents an open invitation to "rescue us from the power of darkness" in which we are deeply entangled (see Colossians 1:13). Through His revelation, our eyes are opened, enabling us to see clearly our unlikeness to Him.

To be clear, there is absolutely nothing we can do to earn our salvation. Still, we have a role to play in the ongoing process where every room in our house needs to be renovated in the image of Christ. So what is our role? Surrender that leads to obedience. M. Robert Mulholland Jr. describes our role as arriving at the "point of saying yes to God at each point of unlikeness [to His image]. We must give God permission to do the work He wants to do- with us right there because transformation will not be forced on us."

Once we open the door to one of the closed-off rooms in our house, God rushes in and begins to do the work of transformation that only He can do. As much as we may want to, we can't will ourselves to change, and we can't just try harder to be "less angry" or "more loving." What we can do, though, is offer our lives to Christ in ways that posture each area of our unlikeness to Him in surrender, allowing His grace to work through us.