In Chapter 10 (“The Heart of Worship”) of The Purpose Driven Life, author Rick Warren discusses 3 barriers that block our total surrender to God. These barriers are significant because surrender is the heart of worship.
1. Fear- the opposite of fear, trust, is an essential ingredient of surrender. Surrender to God is not possible until you trust Him, but in order to trust God you have to know Him better.
2. Pride- admitting our limitations is difficult. Although most people realize that life is a struggle, they don’t understand that our struggle really is a struggle with God. A. W. Tozer once remarked: “The reason why many are troubled, still making little forward progress, is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.” That’s because, Rick notes, we accept our humanity intellectually, not emotionally. When confronted with our own limitations, we become irritated and resentful.
3. Confusion- we mistakenly believe that surrender is passive resignation, fatalism, or repression of our personality. As C. C. Lewis observed, surrender is best demonstrated in obedience:
“The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become- because he made us. . . . It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”
Note: Tomorrow’s blog will post most likely late afternoon, but I won’t be able to Facebook and Twitter the blog until around 8:30-9:00 PM.
