Complete Abandonment

It seems God has been speaking to my heart here lately, convincing me to work more on fully abandoning my life to Him.  This really has been evident the past couple months.  First, He led me to the book, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer.  You can download it for free on your Kindle from Amazon or on iBooks.  This book is amazing!  It really challenges you to view your relationship with Christ outside the box to which most churches confine us.  Tozer talks about abandoning your life to build a rock solid relationship with Christ…that this is first and foremost of importance even above doing good works, church attendance, “being a good Christian”.  He ascertains that those things should be a result only of your cohesiveness with Christ, not a cause or a substitute.

So then last week I went to visit my sister, Dawn, and her family in North Carolina.  Here we go again with more on this lesson of complete abandonment!  First, she and her friends take me with them to an incredible Bible study program called “Morning Grace”.  It is hosted by a local church there.  This Bible study gave me a glimpse of what can happen when we focus on Him and not on denominational doctrine.  This study is attended by around 150 ladies from all different churches in the area.  Their only common bond is their love for Christ.  It was wonderful to worship God and learn more about Him with women from all denominations.  The program is growing too!  Thursday mornings of every week they meet, and now they have a meeting on Thursday evenings for ladies that work during the day.  While I was there I couldn’t help but think about what could be accomplished for His Kingdom if we could only all put away our differences like these ladies do each week!  It would be incredible!

Then Sunday we attended church at my sister’s home church, Crossways Community Church…abandonment again!  The pastor preached on Hebrews 11, the faith chapter.  He taught us how important faith is and that it witnesses, worships, and walks.  He spoke of Abel, Enoch and Noah and their extreme faith.  In particular, how Enoch was so close to the Lord that eventually he simply went home with him.  Wow!  Wouldn't that be amazing!  Also, that God gave Noah instructions to start building the ark 120 years prior to the flood!  Now that is extreme faith – abandoning your life for God!  Can you imagine building a boat somewhere where it never rains and telling the inhabitants there that you are building this boat because there is going to be a flood?  They would think you were an idiot!  I’m fairly certain that is what the people thought of Noah.  However, his life was so completely committed to God that he pressed on anyway.  What faith!

After visiting my sister’s home, I always feel renewed and refreshed.  It is so wonderful and a blessing to know she is not only my blood sister here, but my fellow sister in Christ as well, and this is evident in how she lives out her life each and every day.  I love worshiping with her and her family at their church and cherish our talks about God’s Word and trying to live a successful Christian life.  So, after this trip, my new mantra is “Complete Abandonment”.  Not an easy task to say the least, but for sure an end goal.  First step, continually emptying of self…let’s go.

“It is only the penitent soul that God will accept, the heart that is broken, not the head that is bowed down like a bulrush only for a day, David’s repentance, not Ahab’s.” 

Matthew Henry