He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
John3:36 LSB
It’s easy to say we believe in God. That’s just lip service. It’s not so easy to obey Him and to serve Him. Submitting to Him and surrendering our lives to Him is difficult at best. When we surrender to Him, we want His will over our own.
This is why Jesus taught His disciples to pray for God’s will to be done in Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will is going to be done with or without our approval and participation. Surrendering to God’s will and aligning our will with His will means our requests will be granted.
When Jesus said in John 14:13-14, “Whatever you ask in My name, this will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” This doesn’t mean we can pray to have the winning lottery ticket or pray for our favorite team to win. It means when we are surrendered to Christ, we want what He wants. Therefore, we pray for His will to be done. We ask for the things that line up with His will and of course those things He is going to do for us. We surrender and accept that His will is best.
When we are surrendered to Christ, we don’t intentionally sin. We still mess up from time to time and sometimes may sin without realizing it. This is why we need to remember to ask God daily to forgive us where we have failed Him. We fail to do the things he tells us to do, and we sometimes slip up and do the things He tells us not to do. We are told in 1 John 1:9 if we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
A criminal or a prisoner may turn themselves in and submit to the law and the prison system. When they do this, they come under the control of that system. As sinners, we are prisoners. We are in bondage to sin.
A soldier surrenders his life to His country. He trains as a warrior to serve His country. We should all be soldiers in God’s army. We are told in 2 Timothy 2:4, “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.”
If we believe in God and obey God, we will live our lives in submission to Him. We will spend eternity in heaven with Him. If we surrender to worldly living and the devil, we will spend eternity in a fiery furnace. We are going to be under God’s control or under the devil’s control, God gives us free will. We are free to choose.
I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to be under the control of the devil and sin or God and righteousness, I choose God. I’ve read the end of the book and I know in God’s army we win. Romans 8:37 tells us even though we may suffer for Christ’s sake, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
The only way to win at life is to submit yourself to your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. If you claim to believe in Him, have you surrendered your life to Him? Have you aligned your will with His will? Have you let go of intentional sin and repented? Are you surrendered to a life lived as a soldier for Christ?
If you haven’t surrendered to Jesus, you are merely playing Christian and have actually surrendered to the devil. There is no middle ground. Give it all over to Jesus today and be on the winning side.
Have a great day!