JesusWalk Bible Study Forum: Q2. Surrendering Our Lives to God - JesusWalk Bible Study Forum

Q2. Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? If not, why not now? If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you? How has God blessed you in return?

We cannot really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives because He reveals himself to us according to the measure of our faith. I have surrendered my life to Jesus Christ, although I fall on a daily basis. Surrender has entailed changing my thoughts, my feelings and my actions. God has blessed me in return by proving that when I rely on Him, my needs are met. He is Jehovah Jirah, Jehovah Rappa, and Jehovah Nicci.

Perhaps there is a process of learning about God where we trust Him with little things at first, and with more as we see His mighty hand at work. But the real joy comes when we know Him intimately and trust Him with everything, place our life in His hands, go with Him into His plan for our lives, walk on the water with our eyes on Jesus, and live LOVE as He did with His Father. Then real learning begins!

I have surrendered to Jesus. That meant I gave up marriage to a wealthy man who, in the world's sense I could have loved immensely. However he would not come back to the Lord, and even though he said he would never stop my church activities, I found that inadequate. I need to share the very heart of me, which is Jesus. So I am not wealthy, but I am very, very rich!

God has blessed me by answering the most amazing prayers, and giving me a place in a most wonderful Christian community, with putting stunning people in my life, and with a great contentment that means I can't leave His Spirit to do my own thing. I love Him, and must be in his presence.

No—Even non-believers can “know about God” (Satan knows the Bible, perhaps better than many of us), but we cannot “fully know God” until we entrust him with our entire lives. The key phrase here is “with our whole lives”—not just the little part of our lives we can afford to turn over to him—but our “whole lives”—the “little things” as well as the “big things”.

Saying we trust God is not enough. We must be transformed. At the heart of the matter we must ask ourselves “do I trust God or do I trust in man”.

I chose God—I have surrendered my life To Jesus Christ.

For me surrender has meant turning away from worldly “pleasures” to which I was enslaved; overcoming prejudice towards those “born again weirdo’s” who I now count among my friends; and immersing myself in His Word.

In turn God has blessed me with new friends; a passion for serving others; and insatiable desire to read, understand and incorporate God’s Word into my life. “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:13)

Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? If not, why not now? If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you? How has God blessed you in return?

Until a person gives God his/her entire life, willing to let Him guide him/her in all things, we are unable to hear all He has to say to us. Thus, it is impossible to truly know Him without that!
Yes, I have accepted Jesus as, not only my Savior, but also Lord of my life!
For me, it meant giving up some things, including leaving my home to go to the mission fields for several years in different countries. By doing that, as my son told me, I missed much of the lives of my children and grandchildren.
But when people ask me how I could stand to lose so much, live under privation and often misunderstanding, I have to say, "No! I have not given so much! I have been blessed so much!" To know Him better, to be able to see Him at work in so many diverse situations, and to see another come to know Him, gives a satisfaction different from any other in all of life! I thank Him every day for His kindness in giving me this opportunity and joy!
As of now, since we are in our eighties, we need to be where the doctors speak the same language we do, so we are at the end of this joy. I just pray that my writing occupation will now be used by Him for His glory!

Pastor Ralph, on Oct 21 2004, 07:28 PM, said:

Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives? I don’t think a person can truly know God until they totally surrender all.
My husband likes to say brokenness is a blessing . . . but it takes many times of being broken to truly know and obtain the trust in our Lord.

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ?
I like to think I have, yet I know as a human waiting on the Lord, I continue to take things back only to realize and repent and give my life back to Him . . . I am in the process of perfection, working out my own salvation, in the way the Lord knows best . . .

If not, why not now?
I am in the process of perfection and that will take a life time to accomplish.

If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you?
Up to this point of my surrender it has entailed me to give up self-righteous, control of things I can not control, living in the blessings of the moment; as to what I can do today to help build the kingdom. In other words of not trying so hard to build an earthly church but instead of doing God’s kingdom work at every opportunity God gives me.

How has God blessed you in return?
My mixed priorities and confusion of what is really important in my Christian walk have been more clearly defined. He has blessed me with a greater love for those who are hurting and taught me that I am not bound to man but to His every word. This has given me more peace and increasedmy faith, I have gained wisdom, discernment, and a closer realationship with our Lord.

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[color="blue"]2a.) No. But the Apostle Paul writes the church in Rome: "[/color][color="purple"]For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--His eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse[/color][color="blue"]." (Romans 1:20)[/color]
2b.) Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ?
[color="blue"]2b.) Yes.[/color]
2c.) If not, why not now?
[color="blue"]2c.) N/A[/color]
2d.) If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you?
[color="blue"]2d.) "[/color][color="purple"]I can do everything through him who gives me strength[/color][color="blue"]." (Philippians 4:13)[/color]
2e.) How has God blessed you in return?
[color="blue"]2e.) I have been redeemed. Through the trials, God has given me hope and strength so that I may be there for others. I have eternal life.[/color]

Pastor Ralph, on Oct 21 2004, 07:28 PM, said:

[color="blue"]I am not sure what is meant by this question[/color] (Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives?)

[color="blue"]I am not sure which Gospel is being refered to here by this question[/color] (Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ?)

[color="blue"]We are Gentiles under Paul's Gospel, which is Christs' Gospel for us.[/color]

[color="blue"]Rightly Divide The Truth[/color]
[color="green"]Christ did for me what I cannot do for myself already [/color]
[color="blue"]We are joined to Christ by the ministering of The Holy Spirit. We are SEALED in Christ at the moment we Believe in Him. That comes by Faith, not works. Although of course, because Jesus died Once and for All, for the Remission of sin (that is for our past, present, & future sins), so quit worrying about how good you are or how many times you surrender. We by nature help and do good unto eachother because of Love, in what Jesus did for us, but that doesn't make us anymore Saved, or even the lack of doing good unto others.[/color]

[color="blue"]I am blessed by God that He guides me through to the Truth of who I am in Him, by what ever means He does, for I am hungry to know The Truth. And am no longer Stranded in His Word. <<<that doesn't mean that I'm not still growing in Truth. Hallelujah [/color]

Q2. Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? If not, why not now? If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you? How has God blessed you in return?

Satan knows God - and he certainly is not saved. The key is it is surrendering your will to Him. When we call Jesus LORD - we are saying - I give you everything, I am your servant for you to use - for your kingdom - - basically, I have not rights except for those that you give me. Sounds bad - but it is great - - Jesus will provide everything pertaining to life and Godliness - -

Trust and faith go hand in hand - - as we grow closer to God in Bible study and prayer and serving, we get to know Him better/closer and we will be able to trust easier. That is our growth - -


God is our strong tower - our rock - our everything - - when the Spirit calls us - - we listen, we repent and Jesus becomes Lord of our lives - have faith and trust in Him.

Yes I know this wonderful God and I am daily amazed at how perfectly He works through me to help others see His Kingdom plans for them.
Without Him I am nothing and lost

We cannot really know GOD until we can trust Him with our whole lives. When we place our trust in Him for salvation by grace through faith we are placing our lives in His hands.

Yes, I have surrendered by life to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior who took my place on the cross, died, and rose bodily from the grave.

Surrendering to the Lord has blessed me in that I can come to Him directly because the righteousness of Christ has been placed to my account. He is involved in every part of my life and without Him I would be most miserable.

The work of God begins with a promise which must be accepted by faith. Ultimately this faith, if it is genuine, will be demonstrated by good works. The promises of God are sure to every believer because God is sovereign at every step—from faith to obedience to blessing. In my life as I step out in faith and obedience to God I grow closer to Him every day. I trust in Jesus as my Savior and have surrendered my life to Him. Surrender has brought about examination, true examination. It has brought a hunger for the Word of God. It has brought compassion for others. It has slowly but consistently helped to blind me to the world and to open my eyes to spiritual matters. I could go on forever. God has blessed me by opening my eyes, creating in me a clean heart, giving me faith to replace my fear and anxiety. When I decided that God was more important than life itself, I became satisfied with the life God gave me. It is so hard to explain to someone those ethereal, non-substanitive blessings. I hold them in high regard and believe that everything else will be added unto me. God has purposed the end and the means.

1.To say that any man can KNOW God is a difficult thing to comprehend.
I believe that we can only come to some understanding of God, as we allow
the sanctification process to take place in our lives. I believe that we all
at sometime or another compromise in some area of our lives.The best example is the apostle Paul, who himself said, "That I may know Him...".
My wife's brother in law in Atlantic Canada is the closest that I know of anyone who says they know God. He has seen angels in the sanctuary while he was preaching God's Word and numerous times seen the power
of God bringing healing to people, so much , that he said miracles are common-place there.
I wish I could say that I KNOW God, then I would certainly know each day
the direction my life is going in. However, I believe that as a man lays his
ALL on the altar of sacrifice, he will walk closer to God than most men. I
sometimes wonder in church when they sing that old classic hymn, I SURRENDER ALL , do they really take time to understand what they are saying? We really do have to know God in order to trust Him with all of our lives. I know I am born again and look expectantly to Him every day waiting
to see what He will do in my life. God has given to me a MEASURE OF FAITH
and I will be satisfied to be able to live up to that measure.

Surrender means giving over those things to God, which will only hinder our
walk with God and to be ready in obedience to do what He calls me to do.

I believe I have been blessed with the things we take for granted in life,
as well as the eternal benefits that he promised would be ours.

Q2. Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ? If not, why not now? If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you? How has God blessed you in return?


[color="blue"]Knowing God is a life long process. We cannot know Him for sure until we see Him face to face, in Heaven. But here, we can experience Him, His love, His faithfulness and His companionship. Through these, we can sample a bit of Him. In such background, if we let Him direct our life, we can see the effect ourselves in our own lives. The hardest part is surrendering our whole life to Him without any reservations. Its easy for us to get immersed in a worship service on Sunday and sing whole heartedly, I surrender all, but on Monday morning when we face some problematic issue, do we let God take control? There lies our spiritual maturity. When we let God direct our paths, in essence, it is the best that can happen in our lives.[/color]

[color="purple"]Yes, I have committed myself to Jesus and accepted Him as my Savior and Lord. This has changed my life in a drastic way. My life is controlled by Jesus and my actions and paths are in His control. Result, I don't end up in a muddle. Spiritually, I am growing in leaps and bounds. That is a great blessing for me. I am responsible for so many things and God is leading me in them in accomplishing His will. [/color]

Can we really know God until we trust Him with our whole lives? Have you surrendered your life to Jesus? If you have what has that surender entailed for you? How has God blessed you in return?
We can know God more and more as we trust Him with our lives but I think it will take all eternity to fully know Him. In other words I don't know if we will ever "know "Him fully. How can you know Him who is inscrutable?
I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior but I have a hard time with the word surrender. I think I have more to do judging by the struggle I find myself doing on a daily basis. It seems to be more intense so that what one can do I find myself wanting to do but asking is this what God would really have me doing? I confess I don't understand the struggle right now. It didn't used to be there like this.
Without Him I was most miserable and with Him I am most miserable when I only surrender partially . The only way is complete surrender in all areas. I guess I am glad for the struggle because He doesn't let go of us until we do His bidding. At least I pray He doesn't.
I have gained everything in Him. I now have eternal life. What more can I ask and He has truly blessed me with a desire for Him and His Word and to know more of Him but there have been costs. Dear costs, painful costs but worth the cost to know Him more fully and to know when He is pleased with me.
Philippians 3:10 says "that I may know Himand the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to is death;

The wind is blowing so hard outside I had to put the fire out as the smoke alarm kept going off as the wind would come down the chimney and filll the room with smoke.
Hope this is understandable. These are hard questions to answer anyway.
Thank you everyone for the love I see in each person on this post for the Lord and it inspires me. YOU inspire me in answer to the last question.
We lost power this week and with the winds this strong I hope no more trees come down. Isn't God powerful!!
God Bless!
Jen
Numbers6 :24-26

[color="purple"]1. We can know of Him, but not really know Him. He is love, and until we surrender ourselves fully, we can't experience that fully, and it is heartbreaking. What I mean is---to know God and His love for us and then to see others sitting in their miserable bondage because they themselves refuse to walk in whatever faith they have towards God. They don't know what they are missing, and they do suffer for it.
2. Yes I have!!!
3. Well, I gave my soul to Him in the second grade, when I felt the call to do so, and it took quite some time for me to learn to give Him my life as well. For some time, I did not trust God with all of it, just this or that, and "I could figure out the rest". This, of course, didn't work out very well, and I blamed God for it, and lost my trust in Him completely, and decided that if all He wanted for me was a life of pain and misery, then I would just go about things myself and hopefully have some fun along the way. Ironically, (logically) I got so much pain and misery I finally couldn't stand it anymore and asked for help. He drew me back one step at a time from where I was until the light of revelation came in and God showed me what all He had done for me since I asked, and then I gave it ALL to Him! Sometimes I've gotten stuck and had to repent. Sometimes I've held on to some things and had to repent, but oh how faithful He is! He knows I want to go forward and not back, and is patiently working it all out. And oh how far we have come and what a joy it has been!
4. He has blessed me so abundantly sometimes it's hard to handle! I never knew I could be this happy! I struggle with fear and guilt because I don't deserve to be this happy! ((When is something going to come along and take it all away?---however Ecc. 3:14!)) But that's not the point now is it? He LOVES us! Of course we don't deserve it! We're all sinners and condemned by the law, but the blood of Christ has set us free! And now we can live in the spirit with all the fruits thereof and life abundantly! I have to remind myself of these things almost every day, and it has come to my attention that living in victory and joy and success is a test as well. But oh what a happy one!
A few months ago I found a piece of paper I was writing my feelings on in 2000, before the worst of it all, and before my total surrender. I was asking questions and trying to figure things out and pouring my heart out saying "all I really want is......is that too much to ask?" Well, let me just say that in just a few short years God has given me everything on that piece of paper! (Things I was trying to get on my own and couldn't do.) I've been through so much since then and got so sidetracked I'd forgotten I'd even wanted those things, but God knew!--and even saved the paper for me to remind me at the right time! And I'm just so thoroghly delighted I'm beside myself! I sit in awe of Him!.....and sometimes I sing and dance! The best part is I know it's not over yet! This is just the beginning! We're moving on. He's got more for me to do and my work and service I now know will be joyous to my soul, because I have been created for it! How good it is to know The Lord and be used by Him![/color]

I am going to answer both questions 1&2 here in this section. I had computer problems and Q1 got deleted somehow----
Satan would have us to give in to all of his scheming ways, and go against God and His ways. God uses these tests to strengthen us. Without a test, we have no testimony.
I have been through trials but they have strengthened me spiritually. Dependence on God will bring you through any trial, if you don't loose faith that God will make it right.
Q2. We can know of God but, until we become totally dependent on Him we will not know Him. We must give all to God and be fully consumed by God. I trust Him to fully supply all my needs. Not my wants.Dependence on God blesses me abundantly and every need is supplied. I depend on God to give me strength to do things, to inspire me to push on when I want to quitand give up, and to be my constant companion wherever I am. Being a child of God gives me the assurance of where I will spend Eternity. I need not worry about things that God has already declared, because He said that He would not leave me or forsake me.

I don't think we can really know God until we are face-to-face with Him in heaven. However, we should be willing to trust Him with our whole lives, not just bits and pieces. Many of us have secret areas in our lives with a " keep out-do not enter" sign on the door. Areas we can't or won't surrender to God for one reason or another.
I trusted Jesus as my Savior when I was in junior high which was about 35 years ago. It's only been within the past 5 or 6 years that I have acknowledged Jesus as Lord in some areas of my life. I know I should surrender the other areas in my life to Him as well but am unwillinging to do so I this time.

Pastor Ralph, on Oct 21 2004, 09:28 PM, said:

Just knowing God is not enough. We have to learn and accept what he requires in order to be in his gavor. Trusting god, believers shouldn't have any doubt. He is the Father Almighty. and must remember most of all the God never lies, can not lie. Have surrendered my whole heart, mind, and soul to God and Jesus Christ.

Merry Christmas everyone!
I believe I have surrended my whole life. However, I must be careful when I say whole, because there are still some bad habits I've yet to relinquish. In saying that, I guess I haven't surrended "all of me". I do pray for strength to overcome these bad habits. I've been blessed because I know God loves me and knows all that I am going through. Just to know that our loving, kind, merciful and forgiving (but will not be mocked) God has ultimate authority over everything provides such a blessed state of mind for me. His love for me I hope will permeate through me to everyone around me. I'm not there yet, but it's coming.

Q2. Can we really know God until we can trust him with our whole lives?
We can’t really know God until we trust him with our whole life, not just bits and pieces of it. Satan “knows” God, and Satan “believes” in God, but there’s a difference in just knowing Him and belonging to Him.

Have you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ?
Yes I have, totally and completely.

If not, why not now?
N/A

If you have, what has that surrender entailed for you?
I gave up a lot of things from my past when I surrendered myself to Jesus. Things that I used to think were very important to me, things that I couldn’t live without. It’s amazing when I look back and think how important those things were, and how useless they are to me now that I have Jesus in control of my life.

How has God blessed you in return?
He has blessed me in so many ways. I am a much happier person, I found a wonderful Church and love my Church family. I always heard about “the peace that passes all understanding” but I never really knew what it was till now. It’s a feeling that is hard to explain to someone that hasn’t experienced it, and the only word I can think of is “awesome.”