 Being Unified Within Ourselves
Last month we discussed the importance of making sure our daily actions coincide with our own internal values\belief system to keep us at one with ourselves and God. Today let’s consider how equally important it is to embrace the ability to trust and surrender fully to God in order to experience the incredible inner peace that comes with no longer having to worry or embrace how the world or others think we should live.
One of the great things I love about the Christian faith is how the opposite of how the world generally thinks is often established as the truth in this great Kingdom of light and love.
The world says you basically have to depend on yourself in order to be successful while the Bible says we have to die to self and let Christ live His life through us to really know what true life\success is all about.
The world says never surrender in order to be powerful and strong while the Bible exhorts us to fully surrender to God so that we can know His full strength working powerfully in us through our own weaknesses.
The world says you ultimately have to step on some toes in order to get to the top while the Bible says we should always be kind to others as Christ has been kind to us.
One of the great challenges Christians face in this day and age is how to deal with the tension of living right in God’s Kingdom with a spirit of full surrender and trust in Him, while at the same time making our way successfully in the world without embracing the world’s values as our own.
Often times we can feel divided within and against ourselves as we want to please and submit to God on one side while at the same time we feel the world’s pull tugging us in the opposite direction in order to get ahead.
The story is told of a Christian organization not so long ago that was informed by a supporting government agency that unless they changed their policy to accommodate a certain standard they felt should be done, they risked losing millions of dollars in funding for their work among the poor.
For this Christian group however, upholding this new government standard would contravene their belief system in God as they knew and understood it. What were they to do?
Thousands of people would be negatively affected should they not submit to this new regulation, which by the world’s standard was absolutely fine, but by God’s standard it was not.
Ultimately the leaders decided it was better to obey God then man (Acts 5:29) and so they refused to change their operating policies to accommodate this new standard and subsequently lost their public funding in the process and saw some other organization take over their work.
Following God fully in this world and being completely at one with Him and within ourselves sometimes mean accepting losses, setbacks, rejection and opposition at the hands of others as part of that cost.
Though painful, this is part of the price of following Him wholeheartedly but the blessing of being true to Him in all things despite what others or the world may think cements the inner character of integrity and oneness like nothing else can.
The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:7-8 tells us this: “But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless. Nothing is as wonderful as knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have given up everything else and count it all as garbage. All I want is Christ.” (CEV).
This is the great place of surrender and trust in God…embrace it fully and experience the incredible oneness with Him and yourself that He so wants to share with you everyday!
By Victor Cyr
Questions? Comments? Email Victor Cyr at victorcyr
