An Anthem of Surrender: Filled to Be Emptied

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This is my prayer in the harvest
When favor and providence flow
I know I’m filled to be emptied again
The seed I’ve received I will sow

Desert Song

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This morning, as I was reading my Bible and watching the sunrise, I could not help but smile at the memory of God’s faithfulness to me. I have been so unfaithful to Him in more ways than I have time or need to mention, but His faithfulness has never failed. And His faithfulness to me is what compels me towards faithfulness to Him.

Just think on the paradox of it all. Is it not precious? God gives, that we may surrender. He blesses, that we might praise. He saves, that He may send. And these journeys He is beckoning our hearts to sojourn upon are being upheld by a worthy faith in Christ, the hopeful anchor of our souls.

The beauty of it all overwhelms me.

And so, such is my new and earnest: I know I am filled to be emptied again, the seed I’ve received I will sow.

May this heart He has sought after return to Him with praise.

What I Have Been Given, I Will Surrender

God gives us things to share; God doesn’t give us things to hold.

– Mother Teresa

I am not a generous person.

I have known some truly generous people, and I have seen God’s heart so beautifully expressed in the hospitality of faithful soldiers of the gospel. These encounters with Christian welcome and generosity have demonstrated to me my own lack thereof.

This selfishness is so silly really. If even I myself am not my own, then surely no earthly thing is really my own either. My “space” is not my own – though, I do not discredit the value of solitude. My schedule is not my own – for any goodness that may come from an intentional timetable is immediately purposeless if that schedule becomes more important than listening to Holy Spirit guidance. And perhaps most discreet and convicting of all is the knowledge that my spiritual gifts are not my own.

The unique abilities and inclinations that God ordains in my heart, exist for His glory, His call, His purpose alone. Often I selfishly shy from these gifts for fear of not being “good enough” at those graces of God.

Are we not such foolish beings?

For surely, any “grace” is a gift we do not deserve. We were never good enough for it and never shall be. God does not ask for our perfection – or even experience – in exercising the gifts He has freely granted to us. Are we so silly as to presume that God did not already know our weakness in all these things? But instead, God asks of our utmost attempts. He asks of our genuine efforts, that He might magnify Himself in our growing…and our stumbling.

He’ll be faithful to magnify Himself. Our job is simply to surrender.

We are filled to be emptied.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve on another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order than in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To Him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

– 1 Peter 4:10-11

In Seasons of Blessing, I Will Come with Praise

I have found that I am ever more grateful – or aware of my need to be – for God’s gracious provision when I am lacking something. Such is the strange rhythm of human thankfulness. We live contentedly – though complain often, because it provides temporary delight for our selfish souls – with little word of praise to the great Provider. Yet, when something dramatically unlovely – or appearing to be so – presents itself in our lives, we grow desperately thankful for all the things we had before.

Somehow this depravity of what we deem “good” reminds us of what is truly Good. And that is wonderful…but it is also heartbreaking. Because God designed for our hearts to delight in Him – who is ultimate Goodness – and to understand every other blessing as a good thing because of Him. We have are alive to admire and praise Him for all goodness, because every truly good thing is teeming from His heart.

There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Life up the light of Your face upon us, O LORD!”

– Psalm 4:6

How much we miss.

Yes. How much we miss because we do not praise Him in the seasons of blessing. How much we miss because we do not see Him in the beautiful graces and rhythms of our daily lives. For surely, He is there! Even more bitter a potential is the chance that we might not even see the beauty – thus missing both the Creator and the expression of Him.

And so, I must wonder: do I delight in the blessing…or the Blesser?

You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

– 2 Corinthians 9:11

God’s blessing to us are the offerings of a sacred testimony – a fragrant sacrifice which declares the knowledge of Him to craving souls. Our response to these blessings reveals a great deal about our heart. If I crave the satisfaction I feel upon the blessing, then I value the blessing more than the precious heart behind it. If I delight in the opportunity to magnify His name through the good which He has graciously allowed me, then I must truly love the Blesser.

May my heart delight in rendering praise to His throne, from whence all blessings flow. May I know the utter Beauty of His testimony which He weaves into every gracious gift He bestows. And may that knowledge lead to my soul’s joyful exclamations of His holy name.

We are filled to be emptied.

The climax of God’s happiness is the delight He takes in the echoes of His excellence in the praises of His people.”

– John Piper

From The Desert Which He Saved Me, I Will Return Because He Sends Me

We ourselves are ‘saved to save’ – we are made to give – to let everything go if only we may have more to give. The pebble takes in all the rays of light that fall on it, but the diamond flashes them out again: every little facet is a means, not simply of drinking more, but of giving more out.

– Lilias Trotter

God calls us out of the desert…to send us back into it.

And are you not so very glad we serve the God who sends?

Just the words which speak of such a beautiful reality, make me tear up. We serve a God who saw us in our self-made, lowly, debased desert…and did not delight to leave us there. We had nothing to offer, no way to convince Him to seek us. In fact, often our human hearts chose the solitude in our own foolish and human stupidity. But into the desert He sent out a light to redeem our darkness.

And just as He is sending light into our darkness…He is calling us to be a light in another’s darkness.

He delights in hearts – redeemed and restored which are consecrated unto Him as a reflection of the light which found them in their tombs of darkness. He is sending you and me into the desert from which He saved us.

Because we have the eternal wells of Life. Our souls find complete satisfaction in the precious blood of Christ. And that is enough. It is enough to sustain. It is enough to endure. He is enough. Are we willing to follow back into the desert from which He called? He does not send us out as vulnerable lambs, indeed He is our Shepherd, Defender, and Shield.

But He beckons our faith. He calls us upward that we might go out unto the lowlands. He bids us towards life that we might come and die.

We have been filled to be emptied again.

May we bring praise.  

“For whoever would save His life will lose it, but whoever loses His life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 16:25