Passion: Take It All DevotionsChikamu

“My Heart Is Yours” Devotional

Passion feat. Kristian Stanfill

My heart is Yours/ Take it all/ Take it all/ My life in Your hands/ All to Jesus I surrender/ All to You I freely give/ I will ever love and trust You/ In Your presence I will live.

Most of us are probably familiar with the story of the “Rich Young Ruler” in the Bible. A man approaches Jesus seeking the knowledge of what will bring eternal life. After a brief exchange, Jesus ultimately challenges him and tells him to sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. The man then leaves upset since he was very wealthy.

This story is often used to illustrate the idea that so many of us often have something more that we could give up for God. It is a story of surrender and challenges us with the same questions posed to the wealthy man. How much are we willing to give up? It’s a question we all face at various points as we strive to be better followers of Jesus.

But there’s an interesting statement that comes later in the story in Mark 10. It’s a statement that comes from Jesus’ closest followers a bit later in the exchange. After the wealthy man leaves, Jesus continues to answer questions on what a person must do to experience salvation. Finally Peter says what is on his mind.

“Then Peter spoke up, ‘We have left everything to follow you!’”(Mark 10:28)

When we typically speak of surrender, we usually focus on what more we can give. Sometimes we even measure it out, to give a bit more than we have before of our own time or money or abilities. But what does it mean to look at it from the other side? What if we went in wholeheartedly with our surrender to Jesus? What if we held nothing back from the cause of Christ?

Isn’t this exactly what surrender means? Have you ever heard of an enemy who surrendered only to keep on fighting? Absolutely not! The very meaning of surrender insinuates the ending of a battle. In this case, the battle is over who we will serve: ourselves or God.

What does it mean for you to surrender to Christ? Are there areas still left that you are hoping Jesus will not bring up? Or are you able to say, like Peter, that there’s nothing left? It’s only when we give ourselves fully to God that we truly experience the joy of the Christian life as it was intended to be.

Written by Matt Conner