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By Glen Doss, Major
O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Be merciful to me, Lord, for I am faint. O Lord, heal me, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in anguish. How long, O Lord, how long? Turn, O Lord, and deliver me. Save me because of your unfailing love (Ps. 6:1-4 NIV).
Sometimes the way to victory is by surrender. My bones are troubled is a Hebrew way of saying, “I am wracked with pain.” David, the valiant warrior, by confessing his helplessness, has placed himself in the strongest position possible—he is now free to draw on God’s abundant resources.
This valid spiritual principle—that we win by giving up the control of our lives to God—is modeled for us again and again by the great Bible characters. Paul exulted, I no longer live but Christ lives in me. Yet experience shows us that a sincere commitment to truly give up our right to ourselves to God—though discussed often in Christian circles—is a rare commodity indeed.
Following a recent evangelistic crusade, an impressive number was announced of those who had “made a decision for Christ.” I quipped: “I wonder how many will follow through with their decisions.” The fact is that effecting the self-surrender essential to tap into God’s immense reservoir of strength is by no means as straightforward as it may seem. Many well-intentioned people fall short, I believe, because merely making the mental decision to give up our self-control and hand the reins of our lives over to God is never enough. All our natural instincts rebel against such a yielding; our mere mortal identity adheres to us more stubbornly than glue. Such dependence upon ourselves to run our own lives is a deeply entrenched habit which only God can put down.
However, truly fortunate people eventually arrive at a point where they realize that running their own lives is neither possible nor even desirable. They have come to the end of themselves—in recovery vernacular they have “bottomed out”— and from this clear vantage point are able to make an honest assessment of their circumstances. Carefully surveying their lives, they discover to their shock that no human remedy will suffice. The only logical alternative at this point is to turn to the supernatural, to God himself.
As we admit our weakness, we embark upon a solution. We want to get out of the driver’s seat, but how? We are faced with the universal question: how to “let go and let God.” Ultimately, the key is full willingness. The proof of this almost self-evident fact is in the hundreds of personal testimonies of individuals. They share that they finally, prayerfully cracked open the doors of their minds ever so little, then felt the wind of the Holy Spirit breeze in and take up long-term residence in their lives.
Once God resides within us, he commences a training regimen intended to rebuild us according to his own plans. Paul was blunt when he instructed the young church in Philippi: …[A]s you have always obeyed…continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Phil. 2:12-13 NIV).
At a recent Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, one of my friends shocked us all with his opening remark: “I thank God for my alcoholism.” You could have heard a pin drop in that room. Every eye was focused on the speaker. My friend continued: “The reason I say this is because I’m such a pigheaded, obstinate person that were it not for the horrendous circumstances—the mess made of my life by my hard drinking lifestyle—I know that I would never have given my heart to Christ 30 years ago. I thank God for the disease of alcoholism that finally drove me to my knees.
“For years I resisted surrender to him because I knew that if God were in control of my life, then I would not be in control and, therefore, would not be able to have things the way that I wanted them. I was in such full denial that only a very painful encounter with the consequences of my limitations finally prompted me to make an honest assessment of my life.
“At that point I bent my knees and submitted to God and his total reign in my life. Because of this decision made out of necessity three decades ago, today I can say sincerely with the apostle Peter that I have been filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy [1 Peter 1:8 NIV]. Therefore, thank God for my alcoholism.”