“Can you picture Me without reducing Me?” (Isaiah 46:5 MSG)
Our strong tendency is to box God up into manageable proportions so we can cart Him around, make demands and stash Him in a closet when needed. We make Him just small enough to fit Him into our own sense of understanding. The problem is, our small version of God does not incite worship, instead we tend to worry that He’s not large enough to address our issues. Our imaginations fall tragically short when it comes to ascribing Him proper glory.
To put His power into perspective; everything and everyone and everywhere we have ever laid eyes on has come out of His might and imagination. Let that sink in for a moment. I like to travel and I love people and I enjoy art. A quick catalogue of my fairly limited experiences and there isn’t a super computer big enough to reference or execute the variety, beauty, and grand design that I’ve witnessed firsthand. Doesn’t that blow our cardboard box apart?
“First this: God created the Heavens and Earth – all you see, all you don’t see.” (Genesis 1:1 MSG)
Sometimes this first verse is the beginning of our God-reduction. We trim Him down to mere Creator and forget that He is the central character of life on earth. Because we can’t see Him, we mistakenly assume He is behind-scenes only instead of center stage. But if we read His book, we realize His presence and influence on earth is real. Very real. All of this; from Genesis to Revelation is about Him, not us .
What if we remembered that we are the clay and He is the Potter? If we stopped making demands like tiny terrorists and instead allowed ourselves to be reshaped by His almighty touch? How might a life of joyful surrender look?
When I think of utterly surrendered Bible characters, two come immediately to mind. John the Baptist and Anna the prophetess. So often we look at these folks as though their lives have been tragically reduced by surrender to God’s service. Especially John, with his now famous line: “He must increase and I must decrease.” I wonder, if we could slip through the pages of time and talk with these two heroes of the faith, what they might share about their concessions.
We tend to see surrender as loss: as us yielding to a stronger force, an enemy. We forget that we are the enemy and when we wave a white flag to God we are absorbed into the truest, purest force on earth. This isn’t surrender to captivity, but surrender to freedom. John said it: “The Bridegroom has come, my joy is complete.” Anna echoed it when she saw the Christ child, gave thanks to God and spoke about the redemption of Jerusalem. These given over lives weren’t walking in subtractive service to God; they were multiplied in joy and purpose.
“If, when we were at our worst, we were put on friendly terms with God by the sacrificial death of His son, now that we’re at our best, just thank of how our lives will expand and deepen by means of His resurrection life.”
(Romans 5:10 MSG)
Lord, today we practice surrender again. Remind us anew that we are our own worst enemy, resisting the joy and purpose You have planned out for us. Help us see surrender as multiplication instead of subtraction. Let us envision Your love and life expanding in our clay frames: filling and overfilling. Surrender to You isn’t giving in as much as giving way to Your Spirit and Your Kingdom unfolding in our lives. Amen.