Pure Joy

“Broken I come to you for I know you satisfy. I am empty but I know your love does not run dry so I wait for you so I wait for you. I’m falling on my knees, offering all of me. Jesus, you’re all this heart is living for.”

What does it mean to be broken? And why is it so important? God is a jealous God, which is a negative attribute for a human to have, but for God who set the world in motion, created every species of fish in the sea, and crafted every face present on the planet, it is absolutely, wholly necessary.
Think about it. Would you want to worship a God who thought that he was not worthy enough or powerful enough or complete enough to command all of your love and devotion and who thought that it was okay for you to believe in and cling to Him along with everything else in your life?
But wait; in your clinging to everything, aren’t you saying that God is a liar? God claims to be the way, the truth, and the life. The only way to Heaven. The Savior of the world, and He commands us not to worship anyone or anything outside of himself. We are deceived in thinking that God is okay with polytheism. He is not. He never has been, and God is constant, meaning that he never will be.
Trust me, God deserves all of our love and attention. And since this is so hard for us to grasp and live in the daily reality of we tend to fail repeatedly, turning to the right or the left for pursuits that are less than honorable. We think, myself included, that our plans, purposes, and possessions are more important than, as important, or almost as important as God in our lives. Or we feel that God is just not great enough at this point of our lives to give up all that for Him.
But why not? What are we living for anyways? Why do we have such a hard time giving up our career plans? Or giving up our salaries? Or spouses? Or children?
By giving up, I am not saying to sell them or walk away from them. I am talking about how we want to hold these things in our hands, to control the switch that determines what will happen with the things that we believe are in our sphere to control.
The ironic thing about this paradigm is that none of these things have ever been or ever will be in our control in the first place. God is all-powerful and his enemy the devil also possesses a huge degree of power, although it is pennies compared to the majesty of the almighty, all-powerful God. Everything in our life can change in a moment. Everything that we have worked so hard to control can be ripped from us in one single moment. So why do we do it? We can’t control it. God doesn’t want us to hold it. In fact, he commands us in his word to daily surrender all of ourselves at the foot of the cross.
We do it, but it hurts us every… single… time.
So don’t. Surrender. Give it up. Every last thing that your hands are trying to grasp hold of at this moment. Your future, your plans, your dreams, your money, your marriage, your children.
Give it to God. He cares for you. He loves you. He created you, and what he desires more than anything is for you to surrender every part of yourself to him. Lay is at his feet. Pray to the Lord to take it. Live in a way that demonstrates your knowledge, understanding, and joy in the fact that God is the driving force of your life. And pray this with me for he is certainly worthy to receive honor and glory, forever and ever-amen!

I come before you Lord God, broken. Laid bare. Completely at a loss for words at what you have done for me. I don’t know why I hold on so tightly. Have no idea why time and time again I try to regain control over things that were never mine to begin with. Please take it. All of it. And may you use to glorify yourself. For you are worthy oh Lord in every sense of the word to receive glory and honor. Blessed be your name!