Build my Life
The song for this week is ‘Build my life’ by Housefires. You can listen to the song HERE. Like previous weeks, I suggest you listen to the song, dwell on the words and then read through my brief comments. I hope this song blesses you as it has me.
Worthy of every song we could ever sing
Worthy of all the praise we could ever bring
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Jesus, the Name above every other name
Jesus, the only One who could ever save
Worthy of every breath we could ever breathe
We live for You
Oh, we live for You
Holy, there is no one like You
There is none beside You
Open up my eyes in wonder
And show me who You are
And fill me with Your heart
And lead me in Your love to those around me
Lead me in Your love
Lead me in Your love
And I will build my life upon Your love,
It is a firm foundation
I will put my trust in You alone,
All my life for You, Lord
All my days for You, Lord
You can have it all
This song for me speaks entirely of what it is to live the
Christian life. It reminds us that Jesus is so worthy of all our praise because
He is the name above every name, and He is the only one who saves. It is
because of who He is that we then live a life in response to that by living a
life for Him.
Today, I want to think about two aspects of the Christian life that this song reflects on: full surrender to God and the call to love others as God loves them.
Full surrender to God
The words of this song are full of lyrics that declare our
willingness to surrender to God. As we sing it, we are committing to build our
life on God; give everything to the Lord; trust in God alone; live for God
alone. Wow! This is a song then that we should be wary of. Can we really sing
these lyrics and mean them?! What does
it mean to surrender our lives wholly to God?
Definitions of the word surrender
include, ‘To yield to the power, control or possession of another; to agree to
forego in favour of another; to give up one’s rights.’ If you are anything like
me, then the concept of surrender is quite a hard one. It’s hard because we
fear being out of control and if we surrender to the will of another then we
are not in control. Surrendering challenges my desire to control my own life. In effect surrender is the opposite of control.
Having said all that, as Christians we are called to surrender to God fully. And when we remember and understand who God is then surrendering to Him becomes natural. The Devil seeks to control us by tempting us, lying to us and deceiving us about where we find our satisfaction in life, but God never will. Graciously, He gives us each the opportunity to surrender. This of course draws us to the heart of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and intimacy with Him. In surrendering we’re saying, “Lord Jesus, I make You Lord of every part of my life. I hold nothing back. I choose to surrender all I am and have to You, and to uncompromisingly obey you.”
Surrendering your way
Even when we remember who God is,
this may not always feel easy because at the time surrendering our own desires
and obeying God is hard. However, we can and must do it. Why? Because we know
that our ways are not His ways, nor are our thoughts His thoughts. In each of
us there’s a human tendency to go our own way, following our own choices and
desires. But when we surrender our ways in exchange for God’s ways, He promises
to lead us in His ways and show us the way that’s right, the way we should go.
God says, ‘For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper and not to
harm.’ So, as you surrender to God’s way remember that all of His ways are
loving and faithful.
Surrendering your will
It’s not just our way but also our
will that we must surrender, because when we are children of God we are not our
own, since we have been bought with a price – and a great price at that, the
death of Jesus. This doesn’t mean, of course, that we become weak-willed
people, who lose their identity. It means we become strong people, in God’s
strength, growing in our true identity in Christ, recognising that our real
identity isn’t in what we do, but in who we are, as we prove and test God’s
perfect will for our lives. How do we do that? By reading the word of God,
through prayer and through fellowship with other believers.
Surrendering your walk
And finally, our walk must also be
surrendered. By our walk I mean the way we do life, how we live out our Christian
life. It’s our actions and deeds as well as our appearance and speech. It’s why
the writer to the Hebrew Christians says to surrender their bodies as living
sacrifices. Why? Because it is holy and pleasing to God. It’s a spiritual act
of worship. With our bodies we live for and serve the Lord.
This whole act of surrender is a heart attitude. If you do not surrender your heart then you will not be able to surrender your way, will or walk. When we surrender our heart fully to God, He then works in us to replace hardness and selfishness with His love and compassion, because Jesus is the centre instead of self. With Jesus at the centre we have security and peace, even in the storms of life. The end result of surrender is perfect freedom.
The chorus of this song ends with the words, ‘Lead me in your love to those around me’. And this is absolutely right. Loving others as God loves them flows out of being surrendered to God. Once surrendered, we no longer look at people through our eyes but through the eyes of God. We have compassion on those who we would have previously ignored, we show grace where we previously would have shown anger and we show mercy where we previously would have shown hate. As we surrender our lives fully to God in the knowledge that He has saved us through His great love, we desire to show that love to those around us who don’t yet know God. Ask God this morning to increase your love for the lost and then move you to action to reach out to them with the great news of the Gospel.
Prayer for today
Loving Heavenly Father,
We thank you and praise you for who you are. We thank you that there is none like you. You are the awesome creator God who sent his one and only son to save us.
We pray today that you will open our eyes to see more of you and ask that you will give us a heart for the lost and a love for them like you have. We also pray that we will build our lives upon you and trust in you alone. May we fully surrender our lives to you. By your Spirit will you show us where we are not surrendered to you and then give us the strength to surrender.
We pray for those we know today who don’t know you. May you use us to show them your love and will you open their eyes to see you.
We pray all this in Jesus’ name,
Amen
Photo from unsplash by Debbie Hudson
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