I don’t think I’ve ever entered into a new year without a mental list of things I must be and do.  The be’s and do’s were always important so I could find relevance in living each day.  God has finally brought me face to face with this faulty thinking.  My scripture reading this morning is now in I Corinthians.  Back when I was in high school the Lord impressed upon me I Cor. 10:13.  I talk about this in my book, but this verse at the time gave me hope that the temptations of life wouldn’t have to overrule my behaviors or overrule the behaviors of how others treated me–my brother and my dad.  Scores of times I would plead with God to make this verse real and not just be a hope.  However, knowing the Bible is true, I would hang onto what the verse said hoping it could be true someday.

The second relevant verse of today’s reading is I Cor. 10:31.  The second part of this verse says:  “do all for the honor and glory of God.”  There is nothing added to the end of this verse saying something like:  do all for the honor and glory of God so you can now be important to Him and others.

Fast forward 50+ years.  God has replaced that added phrase of mine with the assurance that His work in me through Jesus Christ, His Gift to me of His Holy Spirit is as sufficient and complete as He Is Almighty.  He no longer wants me doing or trying to be in order to prove some type of hopeful worthiness which would be gone just as soon as the task was done.  The anxiousness that had been within me is now replaced with an assurance that my vessel–me–is able to be used by God as He so chooses.  There is such a calm in being in this state of mind.  I’ve never known it before.

There is a verse in Mark 9:24 that states:  “…I believe, help Thou my unbelief….”  So many times I’d seek God’s favor in trying to get Him to strengthen my unbelief so I could be disciplined enough to be and do all He wanted of me.  Finally, I’ve learned that discipline is replaced by surrender.  None of this has happened quickly for me.  God has needed to chip away at many defects of character I’d developed early in my life.  Today I am ready to be an empty vessel that God has filled with His Holy Spirit and, that vessel–He cleansed it completely by the blood of His Own Son–Jesus Christ making it ready for the Spirit’s indwelling.  I surrender to this truth and can now finally do what the scripture says in I Cor. 10:31–“do all for the honor and glory of God.”  I can now end the scripture where God has always wanted it to end–with Him (not me).