Isaiah 48:10 – “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the Furnace of Affliction.”

As I read, prayed, and pondered the Word of God today, I was drawn to the Life of Christ and Life in Christ.  The totality of Jesus’ involvement and investment in us is almost impossible to fully grasp.   Most have Jesus as an accessory, not in totality.   

We add Jesus to our lives rather than Jesus being our lives.  We walk with Him rather than walk in Him.  We live as me, and Jesus rather than Jesus is me.   Christ IN us, Christ THROUGH us is the Christian life.  We try to live for God rather than having God live His life in and through us.

Total surrender is never achieved because we envision ourselves and Jesus as two separate entities.  We fail to grasp that we are cells in the Body of Christ, members of it.  To operate or live separately from Him, thinking that is living for Him, is to dethrone God and enthrone self.

Total surrender is to die to self.  It is to experience His life in our lives.  It is to be transformed.  That is interesting (transformed).  Made different.  Not modified but transformed into something else.  We seek to reform and modify our lives, thoughts, and behavior to be a bit more like Him. Transformation removes the self and replaces it with HIM!

Isaiah 48:10 makes a troubling declaration.  Troubling but wonderful if we can look through the momentary to the eternal.  “I have purified you in the furnace of misery.”  Couple that with Paul’s desire in Philippians 3:10, “My aim (goal or desire) is to know (become inseparably intimate with) Him, to experience the power of His Resurrection, to share in His sufferings, and to be like Him in His death, AND SO, somehow, to attain to the Resurrection from the dead.”

Total surrender.  Total transformation.  Total life!  When we truly see the Life of Christ and Life in Christ as being the same, we are FREE!   At that point, we become more than conquerors through Jesus.   We turn our world upside down for God and live FREE!  Until then, we struggle with two steps forward and one step back.

I surrender all.