Reply To: Chapter 1 – Absolute Surrender

[Mark]

Thank you Pastor Lee. It seemed weird that Murray began by using the surrender of a Hebrew king to a pagan authority. But after meditating on that, I think that I get his point. It was a proclamation that someone – in his case, an invader, but in our case God – someone else, not me, has now been given full authority in my life … a proclamation, or maybe better yet, a declaration that You, my God, are now regarded as the owner of all that I have … my possessions, my ambitions, my inward thoughts and attitudes, even the very breath that I breathe.

Declaring or proclaiming this is the beginning, the setting of the course of our soul, like a rudder on a ship that has been set to travel a desired course. But the winds and shakings of life come along and nudge us off course. Sometimes more than a nudge. But the Holy Spirit working in our lives – because we have established that the ultimate preference of our will is to follow the Master, because we have yielded to His ultimate authority, because we have established this holy “condition” – performs the miraculous work within us, transforming us – “metamorphosizing” us – conforming us more and more into the image of Christ. Also known as sanctification!