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I am so delighted to finally be able to share my findings from the second chapter in Leslie Ludy's book "Sacred Singleness".
Just to clarify-
FOR THIS SERIES: ALL QUOTED MATERIAL WILL BE ITALICIZED.
I just think that will make it easier to differentiate my words versus the people I am quoting (and there will be quite a few quotes let me tell you!)
This second chapter is entitled "The Pattern of True Christianity" and let me tell you this chapter really really impacted me in so many different ways! I am so excited to share my thoughts on this chapter with you all and I am praying that it will make as much of an impact on some of you as it has made on me.
"There are some who would have Christ cheap. They would have Him without the cross. But the price will not come down."
-Samuel Rutherford
Jesus never promised that a life lived for Him would be easy, BUT He promises to be with us every single step of the way. We cannot expect to be able to get away with half-heartedly living for our Lord. He wants our all. Think of this: Jesus Christ paid the ULTIMATE price for us on that cross by willingly laying down His life for ours. The LEAST we can do for Him as His child is CHOOSE to live a 110% Surrendered life for Him each and everyday.
1 Corinthians 6: 20 says:
"For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit."
So often it can be so easy to do a lot of outward service for our Savior, but what about the inside? What does our spirit look like from day to day? I know personally it can be really easy to talk my talk but when it comes to walking the walk...that can be a little more difficult. But as a child of the King...the price was His life! Lets glorify Him both inwardly and outwardly. Whatever the circumstances.
"The idea that everything-including the good dreams and hopes GOd has given us-must be surrendered back to Jesus Christ is often deemed extremem and unnecesary...The concept of trusting God to script our love story in HIS perfect time, without manipulation on our part, is typically treated as ridiculous and naive."
-Leslie Ludy
This is hard. The past few weeks I have really been struggling with just trusting the Lord to write my love story and in the meantime NOT MANIPULATE to try to get things to turn out the way I want them too. The problem is that when I try to take matters in my own hands instead of just trusting God things tend to blow up in my face. The sad part is that so often because I feel I have to have that control I tend to take steps to go forward (or try to go forwards) when I know full well that all the Lord wants me to do is be still before Him and just trust in His timing. Like Leslie Ludy said "...this concept is treated as ridiculous and naive" which in esssence is like telling the God of the universe, Who not only knows our life story but wrote it, that He made some mistakes when it came to ________________________ and He should really just allow us to pencil in what we think needs to happen in our lives in our story. The only problem is that when a book has already been published penciled in changes aren't really going to make much sense. Sound familiar to anyone?
"Once upon a time, Christian men and women understood what it meant to lay down everything for the sake of Christ-including their desires for marriage and family. Like Abraham surrendering Issac, they willingly laid their most sacred and priceless blessings upon the alter before God. They realized that if He desired them to be married, He would make it clear in His own perfect time and way. But He must always come first, and He must always be implicitly trusted."
-Leslie Ludy
When the above quote was talking about how when it comes to surrendering out love stories Christ must be IMPLICITLY trusted..that really made me stop and think. So many times I have laid down my singleness at His feet trusting Him to do His perfect will in whatever He has planned for both my life story and my love story. But so often when things get rough, or I see my friends pairing off and life seems to get incredibly lonely I tend to pick my single state up once more and start trying to control it. Then I begin to worry and agonize over whether or not my turn will finally come when all the while the God of the entire universe (I think He can handle it!) is waiting for me to lay it back down at His feet in complete surrender and just start living in complete and total trust that He knows what He is doing. What if we all started living like that? I think we would be amazed at the things that would happen once we surrendered our all to Him.
"No matter how our selfish, fleshly side feels about it, laying everything on the alter before our King, and allowing His to do with our lives whatever He sees fit, is where true Christianity begins.
Our desire for marriage must be no exception. Let us not fall for ear-tickling, lackadaisical messages that require less than absolute abandonment to the One who gave His very life for us. He took up His cross and He asks us to do the same. Never forget...on the other side of surrender, we will find the greatest joy!"
-Leslie Ludy
This is what it all boils down to. Whether or not we will CHOOSE (because it is our choice and no one elses) to live a 110% surrendered life for Jesus Christ OR to continue to ride the fence with one foot in the world and one foot in the church (which let me tell you from personal experience does not work). So I desire to be married and have babies. It that wrong? NO! However if I put that dream before my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and it gets in the way of having a deeper, more intimate and surrendered relationship with Him I do believe it is wrong.
He wants us to surrender every single thing in our lives to Him. Will this mean that life will all the sudden get easier? No, but it does mean in these hard times we will have Him to lean on (Philippians 4:8) Does this mean that I will always be happy? No, but it does mean that no matter what comes my way I can have joy in knowing that through Christ there is victory (1 Corinthians 15:57-58). Does that mean that sometimes as I surrender circumstances (like loneliness and worry) to the Lord I will not experience loneliness and worry at times? No, BUT it does mean that in those times I can call on my God knowing that He will give me strength and a peace that can only come from Him (Isaiah 26:3) and that in those times of worry and stress I need only to fix my eyes on Him knowing that He will give me peace (Philippians 4:6-7). That is what surrender brings...a dependence on Him.
"It is easy to think,'If I surrender this desire to Christ, He will eventually give it back to me. If I stay pure, then surely He will write a beautiful earthly love story for me and all my dreams will come true.'
But that's not real surrender. When I laid down my dreams and desires at the feet of Jesus, I knew I could not hold onto any expectations. I didn't have the assurance that one day He would write a beautiful love story for me. I couldn't assume that an earthly prince was waiting in the wings for me.
Rather I was to expect to be single-and to become fully content with singleness-unless at some point God made it clear that He had a different plan for me."
-Leslie Ludy
I have to admit this is one of the hardest things I have struggled with. Over the past few years I have had people assure me (meaning well of course) that one I surrender my singleness to the Lord that will be when God sends my knight in shining armor. Basically the mind set that once I surrender then I will finally get what I desire. The thing is that there are no guarantees! I have had to come to terms with whether I will be content if I surrendered my singleness and the Lord NEVER brought someone into my life here on earth and I was single for the rest of my life or not.
Each and everyone of us need to come to that decision. To be so surrendered to Christ we expect to be single? Wow...talk about surrender being difficult sometimes! That brings us back to whether or not Jesus is worth it. Is He worth it to you?
"Christ loved us without expecting us to love Him in return. As He was dying on the cross, those He had come to save were mocking Him and spitting in His face. Can we love Him the way He loved us? Can we surrender everything to Him without expecting anything in return?"
-Leslie Ludy
Can I surrender it ALL (husband, babies of my own? Which has always been my life dream). What are your dreams? Can we love Him enough to serve Him unconditionally even if we don't get anything in return? Is He worth it to us?
"This is the secret-whether we are single or married-to finding contentment no matter what our situation. To turn down the volume of our selfish, screaming emotions and attune our ears to our King's gentle whisper. To yield to His strength rather than the power of our own desires. To CHOOSE to love, give, serve, and pour out our lives for Him, asking nothing in return. It's what He did for us. And its what He asks us to do for Him."
-Leslie Ludy
Doesn't that pretty much sum it up very nicely? To be content no matter what our circumstances are...to rely on Him for strength. To not surrender things with strings attached...Alot to digest but...don't digest it too long.
IT IS TIME TO STEP OUT AND START LIVING FOR OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST.
Miss the 1st part of the series? Read them here:
Can Singleness Really Be Single?-Introduction
Can Singleness Really Be Sacred?-Chapter 1
Read more...
