Complete Surrender

So as I’ve been making my way through the Old Testament over the last month. I can find myself aggravated and irritated so often at the people of Israel. They so often turn their face away from God and seek hard after the idols and gods of the people surround them.

Judges 10:6, “The people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” I believe I’ve read these words or similar words the last 6 days as I’ve opened the word of God.  Now, as I said in my first post, God is faithful even when we are faithless. But, after so many times, the Lord is going to challenge the nation of Israel a little harder.

In verses 10-13 it says, “And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, ‘We have sinned against you, because we have forsaken our God and have served the Baals.’ And the Lord said to the people of Israel, ‘Did I not save you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites, from the Ammonites and from the Philistines? The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites and the Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, and I saved you out of their hand.  Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.”

Now, God was being harsh with the people of Israel here. I believe he wanted them to genuinely turn away from their foreign gods and completely surrender their lives to Him before He was going to save them again. He wanted them to stop giving into worshipping false idols and put their faith in Him 100% of the time.

The people of Israel respond to the Lord in verse 15-16, “And the people of Israel said to the Lord, ‘We have sinned; do to us whatever seems good to you. Only please deliver us this day.’ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord.”

The nation of Israel did respond in complete surrender, realizing that even a little bit of God’s help was better then what they were getting from serving the foreign idols and gods which was nothing but oppression from surrounding nations. But it wasn’t just their prayers to the Lord that changed. They took action in physical ways too, “they put away the foreign gods from among them.” They cut off and completely got rid of the evils that were distracting them from complete dependence on the Lord. And after they did that they, “served the Lord.”

A couple questions I have been asking myself since studying this passage is, “Are there any idols or things of this world that are distracting me from serving the Lord with everything I have? Have I completely surrendered all parts of my life?”

We need to as a people of God seek to live every part of our lives glorifying the Lord. When we are amongst people who do not know the Lord, when we are hanging out as friends and when we are on our own. Don’t let sin and things of this world distract you from pursuing the Lord. Take means to cut off and do away with things that distract you. I know for me I’ve had to cut off listening to the radio or pop songs, because they draw my affections away from the Lord and towards things of this world. Friends, take action and fight the temptations of this world with the Word of God.

Let us seek to learn from the example of the Israelites and live by the words of Jesus in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” You may right now be thinking of sins or things in your life that are hindering you from completely surrendering your life. Start taking action like the Israelites did. You may not have anything off the top of your head. But take a minute to pray and ask the Lord if there is. If you completely surrender to the Lord, you are going to blessed by him. Let us be a generation that flees from sin and worldly distractions and a generation that “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” (1 Timothy 6:11)