Words Of Encouragement To Start The Day ( Friday 12/12/08)

Surrendering To His Will and His Way

Part II...

1 Peter 2:11-12 (Amplified Bible)
11) Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges (the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, your lower nature) that wage war against the soul.
12) Conduct yourselves properly (honorably, righteously) among the Gentiles, so that, although they may slander you as evildoers, [yet] they may by witnessing your good deeds [come to] glorify God in the day of inspection [when God shall look upon you wanderers as a pastor or shepherd looks over his flock].

I heard someone ask a question years ago, who are you when no one is looking? Most people like Peter, deny Jesus or deny his teachings through their behaviors, words and deeds. But when it suits them or when others are looking, they have a tendency to act according to the crowd they are around, or they act in what is considered the acceptable behavior of the day. A friend of mine recently, said of me that I am "vast." This individual's inference had to do with my expressiveness, my ability to paint a picture that fills in every detail, and leaves no stone unturned and no detail uncovered. If you talk to my family they will tell you I talk a lot, a whole lot. They say I am very expressive and very emotional. I am who I am, no matter who is watching or who is not. I care deeply and I am secure enough to express that.

When we are wholly submitted to God we become consistent in our behaviors, whether in the public venue or in private, whether in a public arena or all alone. When we are humbled by the presence of God in our lives we portray His character and His attributes, we find ourselves on a more consistent and even keel, rather than up and down the behavioral scale, with people never knowing what to expect of us. We become a light in an otherwise dark situation, we become the model of transparency. People that know us are seldom surprised by things they hear concerning us, because our behaviors have a foundation, whose maker and builder is God!

Submission is, as submission does. If we abiding in Christ and we are yielded to all that He is and all that He represents, we will find ourselves yielded even to the point of death, the death of who we are molding ourselves to be and we find ourselves living to what God is and who He is making and growing us to be. It is about time we do more than sing about it, and really "Surrender All!"