I Surrender All & the Psalm of the Week

I just ran a quick errand with a friend of mine who has 2 children - a daughter who is in elementary school and a son who is a preschooler. The daughter had been at a church activity today and when I asked her about it the brother proceeded to tell me all about it. He told me quite a bit of detail about where she went, who she played with, what prizes she got. He followed that up with this, "But I don't really know what happened because I wasn't there." It was totally precious. Sometimes I'm like that -- getting all up into other people's business. Our Bible study on Sunday morning was about the time when Jesus was commissioning Peter to take care of His people and Peter asked about John. Jesus told Peter not to worry about John. Worrying about what other people are doing, comparing ourselves to others - their gifts and talents - can be such a distraction to what God wants to do in us and through us.

Sunday morning we sang the old hymn, "I Surrender All." For longtime church people, that is a familiar song -- one that can be sung without really thinking about the lyrics and what they mean. "All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Thee I freely give...All to Thee, my precious Savior, I surrender all." What does total surrender look like to you? In his sermon, my husband/our pastor asked us to think about what we would imagine it to be if God were about to do something big in our lives. At the end, he brought up that question again -- that thing that we imagined, maybe that thing that we would like God to do in our lives, would we be willing to give it up if called to do so? Would we be willing to surrender it?

That morning, before church, I wrote a few verses to memorize from the psalm I picked for the week, Psalm 103. The main points of the first 5 verses (the verses I am memorizing this week) are this:
*Bless the Lord with all that you are
*forget none of His benefits
*He pardons iniquities
*He heals diseases
*He redeems your life from the pit
*He crowns with lovingkindness and compassion
*He satisfies and renews

I've been thinking about His benefits toward me, as it affects me. How would you list and/or describe His benefits in your life? See, when I think about God doing something big in my life I don't stop to consider what I might have to give up in order for God to do in me and through me in order for it to be accomplished. I want the benefits but the surrendering part I'm not always sure about. It's made especially hard when I sometimes look around me and am distracted by other people. I'm distracted by worldly pleasures and wanting life to be easy. It's a daily struggle, I admit it. Today, though, I can sing it for real, "I surrender all..."

Serving the King,

Jeanette