“She’s not the boss of me,” my dear friend declared as he balked at my teasing suggestion that I check with his wife before I bake his requested chocolate cake. We both knew he was to follow some dietary restrictions but it was truly his wife who tended to keep him on track. He didn’t want anyone else dictating his diet. He didn’t want anyone ruling over him.
I have to admit, I prefer to be the one in charge of me, too. How about you? Do you struggle to surrender authority to anyone else?
Colossians 3:15 challenges us, “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
For the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts, we must surrender to it. We must allow Jesus to guide our intentions. We must choose it. We must make a conscious decision to let Christ reign. We must cross out our emotions, thoughts or preferences.
Take ‘me’ out of the equation.
Is that easy for you? It’s definitely not easy for me.
And yet, God is telling us that letting the peace of Christ rule in our hearts is how He authors for us to live. God created us. I trust Him. I trust His word which contains His owner’s manual for how to live as humans.
There are things we don’t want to do, hurts we don’t want to forgive, people we don’t want to serve. Sometimes there are offenses we don’t want to surrender, instead we want to hold onto them.
Yet, by releasing them, handing them over to Christ, we are doing ourselves a great service. We can’t always choose how others may treat our hearts, but by surrendering them to Christ, we can choose to allow Him in there. By choosing to ask what God wants, and surrendering to Him, we are choosing something far better.
And with Him comes a great peace, in fact that peace has been described as the peace that passes understanding. Peace that occurs and yet doesn’t make sense. Because that peace is from Christ. When God authors something, we don’t need to be able to define or explain it.
But we can be thankful for it, which is Paul’s final direction at the end of the verse.
Gratitude for something that is a gift, not something we could have conjured up on our own. We needed to choose to ask Jesus for His peace. And this may require a minute-by-minute re-surrendering as we go throughout the day, or week or month.
And when it arrives, we need to be thankful. Because it is truly a gift of our loving Father.
Yes, it’s hard to hand Someone else that keys to our heart and tell Him, “Take the Wheel”. To surrender to wherever He wants to take us. Yet, His path is always the best. It will lead to peace with Him. And there is nothing on earth we could desire more.
Are you struggling to surrender today? Let’s join together in prayer for just that.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for the ability to come to You. Please help me surrender my heart to You. All the concerns, hurts and offenses. Help me to re-surrender as often as I need, until I can finally just give it over to You. Thank You for Your way. I trust You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.