Altar Vision Devotional - Week 3 How do I prioritize surrender to God and my personal relationships? Through prayer, reflection and scripture
Scripture
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Reflection
“Popo [Grandma], keep these stones and remember me. Come here every day and remember me.” These were the words of our five year old as he sat in the park with his grandmother. She had held him as a newborn, changed his diapers, and spoon fed him. And in that park, she watched over him every day as he ran and played, and then carried him back home on her back when he was too tired. Now he was saying goodbye.
In her heart, she wanted so much to hold on to him and to keep him close by. But she knew that my husband and I had a clear call to go to Zambia and equip church leaders, to teach and share the Good News. She had prayed years before, for God to bring me back from wandering, and she had promised God that I would serve Him full-time. God answered her prayers, and now it was time for her to surrender.
Just imagine her grief and sadness. She surrendered her dreams of caring for her grandchildren in her retirement. She gave up precious years of bonding and creating memories together. Twenty years later, she still treasures those stones. But she knows that by blessing us and sending us off, she was blessed and so were many others. The Gospel was taught, the orphans were schooled, the nations were reached.
About surrender, she says, “There are a lot of things we don’t want to give up, but we must trust and obey.”
Jesus asks “Do you love me? Do you love me more than these?” Jesus or your parents? Jesus or your children or grandchildren? Jesus or your girlfriend/boyfriend?
Maybe you’re not in that place of needing to surrender. Maybe not yet. Or maybe you are.
How much do you love God?
Who are those people that you might love more?
In what way is God asking you to surrender the people in your life?
Prayer
Lord, bless the people in my life. Thank you for loving them and caring for them. Give them health and strength, peace and safety. Lord, I give them over to you and put their lives into your hands. Help me love them well and love you even more. Thank you Jesus, for your example of surrender, of leaving the Father to come and die for us. We love you Jesus. Amen.
I tell you the truth, there is no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive in this age a hundred times as much—homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, fields, all with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.
