Monday, September 28, 2009

Quotation Tuesday!

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." ~ Jim Elliot

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time. Likewise Jim and Elizabeth Elliot are some of my modern day heroes. Nothing we have in this life are we capable of keeping. In truth we are only renting what we have for a short period of time. Everything belongs to God. Life, health, friendships, and material possessions. All belongs to the Lord. Our time on this earth is short and I am personally not interested in spending it holding on to what I have. Instead we are called to spend our lives surrendering everything we have to its rightful owner. Yes, even our lives.

In Matthew 10:39 Jesus says; He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it. Put all that you are and all that you have in the hands of Jesus Christ, and let him write your story. For some, like Jim Elliot, it may require actually losing your physical life. For others giving up some earthly pleasure may be as much as you can bear. But when we trust the Lord with whatever we have the reward is so much greater than anything we could have held on to. What we find is so much greater than anything we lost, because we find the joy and peace that only complete surrender to Christ brings.

Jim Elliot wrote that quote in his journal roughly six years before his death at the hands of savage Auca indians. When the day came for him to die he was ready, why? Because he had already given up his life, to Christ. Physical death would not change his location, in the arms of his Savior. When my time comes, whether it be tomorrow or sixty years from now, I don't want to be giving up my life for the first time. I want to have already surrendered it to the will of my Savior.

No comments:

Post a Comment