My Utmost for His Highest

I love Oswald Chambers devotional. February 6th was about the following:

Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar" ( Psalm 118:27 ). You must be willing to be placed on the altar and go through the fire; willing to experience what the altar represents-burning, purification, and separation for only one purpose-the elimination of every desire and affection not grounded in or directed toward God. But you don’t eliminate it, God does. You "bind the sacrifice . . . to the horns of the altar" and see to it that you don’t wallow in self-pity once the fire begins. After you have gone through the fire, there will be nothing that will be able to trouble or depress you. When another crisis arises, you will realize that things cannot touch you as they used to do.

Have you ever been through the fire? I sure have, more than once...As the wise say, if you're not in one, you're gonna be. Unfortunately, I haven't always been very graceful while I've gone through it. I've kicked and screamed and even prayed to try to manipulate the Lord and His will. I'll tell you, there is nothing more exhausting than trying to control the uncontrollable. It totally wipes you out and leaves you with very little brain cells and energy. Then the bargaining comes and you promise to go through the next trail better than the last and on and on and on.....

My husband and I are actually facing ANOTHER trail with the economic situation. Today, I told my husband that I surrender and I'm going to walk close to the Lord and believe Him in all things and NOT waste my energy by trusting in myself or something else. 

This devotion was an encouragement to me yesterday. I lay down at the altar of life and surrender all to the Lord. I am His and He can lead me wherever I may go. I've got to stop this stubborn fight that I always have when it comes to the altar. I want to win the race that's in front of me and save my energy to finish it.

 

So today, I lay down and surrender all.