surrender

Before we came to Russia, the Lord spoke to us using the imagery of a pearl. I read something recently that brought more depth to this already-beautiful imagery – “A pearl is a beautiful thing that is produced by an injured life. It is the tear that results from the injury of the oyster. The treasure of our being in this world is also produced by an injured life.” I think of how God wounds, but He also heals (Job 5:18). He uses wounding in our lives to produce something truly beautiful. Running these marathons we’re on exposes our individual weaknesses, and if we want to continue running, it’s important that we deal with our weaknesses God’s way. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

God gave me a vision a few months ago during a prayer meeting in which I saw the Lord pouring oil over Russia. Some of the oil went into the ground, but some of the oil pooled on the surface. I asked the Lord what prevented all of the oil from soaking into the earth, as intended. He said that wherever His people had containers, they could contain His oil. The name of the containers is “Surrender”. He said that He wanted to pour out His fire on Russia. But His fire can fall only on sacrifice. He’s looking for those who belong completely to Him, who have unconditionally surrendered to Him.

God’s remedy for our weaknesses is surrender. As we surrender everything to Him, He takes our imperfections, our inadequacies, our mistakes . . . and brings forth something incredible from the hidden depths. Personally we are in that place of surrender again – in one sense, every day is a day of surrender, but there are special seasons in all of our lives where the Lord requires us to go to even deeper levels of surrender that we hadn’t previously realized even existed. I think He does this because He knows how quick we are to put our trust in other things, even lovely things . . . He wants us to continually live in that place of utter dependence on Him and Him alone. When I’m in one of those seasons, I often just sit or lie in the Lord’s presence and let the tears roll down my cheeks as God’s skillful hand cuts at the places in my heart that need His masterful touch. It’s a fragile place to be, but at those times, we can be hopefully expectant because His injuries always bring with them Kingdom treasures that will in time be revealed. If we resist the injury, we will not be able to produce the beautiful strand of pearls that God has planned for us. Now I am beginning to understand Song of Songs 4:9 – “You have stolen my heart, my sister, my bride; you have stolen my heart with one glance of your eyes, with one jewel of your necklace.” Our surrender produces the jewels that steal God’s heart.