Brevity is a gift I’ve always admired — so much can be said in a few simple sentences by one endowed with such a gift. Jesus of course was THE master of brevity, the Beatitudes being a wonderful example!
I was reminded of this powerful truth when I came across Hudson Taylor’s succinct application of Jesus’ words found in John 4:34, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.” Taylor (1832-1905) noted that: “The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too often in an unsurrendered will.”
Well, there it is: Believers are called to an uncompromising surrender of the will — period! All true followers of Christ eventually come to points of what might be called a crisis of the faith — an encounter with the Lord where we face a decision that must be made: “My will or His will be done.”
Should we choose a path other than the one the Lord has for us, the result will be “an unsatisfied life” — a life that lacks the confidence that we are safely abiding in the will of God; that we are in the center of His will, directed and protected by His very presence.
I’m sure some of you have been there; some are there as you read these lines. If this is you, the consolation for complete surrender is God’s unfailing promise: “…No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly” Psalm 84:11.