Surrender

“…You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
Therefore honor God with your bodies.” (1 Corinthians 6:20)

Contrary to what some people in the world think, Christians are not taken over by God and controlled by Him – we surrender to Christ and voluntarily put ourselves under His will.

It is a separate act of our will apart from salvation. That comes from our voluntary ACCEPTANCE of his sacrifice to pay the debt we owe. It may have taken some of us years to get to the point where we make that choice and accept the gift but then comes the second choice – what will we do with our lives once we realize we are no longer our own.

It is a decision.

A choice.

This is different than the acceptance of the free gift – it is a SURRENDER to Him and the beginning of the discipleship road. The goal? Each day to become a little more like Christ and a little less like our former selves. In Roman times we would have called this like being a bondservant. In Old Testament times the concept was that of a slave. Here is a link to a great explanation of what a bondservant was in Roman times:

https://www.gotquestions.org/bondservant.html

The TL/DR summary: If you were a slave, you could choose to be forever indentured to your master, meaning you gave up your right for him to ever grant you freedom because of your CHOICE to voluntarily be his servant for life. We see examples of this through the New Testament of people who were completely devoted to Christ. Paul, Timothy, James, Peter, and Jude all describe themselves as “bondservants of Christ” (Romans 1:1; Philippians 1:1; James 1:1; 2 Peter 1:1; Jude 1:1)

Choose today to submit to God and be discipled by Him.

What does that mean in practical terms? It looks like spending time in the Word daily—studying it, praying over it, and obeying it. How can we submit and serve a Master we know nothing about?

We do this not because we want to be controlled – we want to be molded and shaped through the forge of life so we can be used by Him while on this planet for His glory.