Lordship

​I recently wrote about allowing Holy Spirit to lead you, and that got me thinking about Lordship. What does it mean to make Jesus the Lord of your life? What does Yahweh really mean? And what does it mean to surrender your life to Him?
The word “Lord” means something close to the word boss; the word Yahweh is God’s word for Lord. When we call God Yahweh, we are really calling Him our Lord, acknowledging that He has authority over our lives; when we surrender our lives to Him, that means that we agree to follow His lead, putting our desires and emotions/feelings behind His.
What does a surrendered life look like?
According to scriptures, a surrendered life is the Christian life, and there are a lot of requirements to live by. We could list out the do’s and don’ts of Christianity here in this blog, but that would be really big, so I will try my best to keep it simple. After all, God judges the hearts of men, and not their actions, so I don’t want to emphasize actions.
If you are surrendered, then that means you will be taking every thought captive. Man that is a difficult requirement. Newsweek published an article a few years ago that said humans have over 6000 thoughts per day, which comes to about 350 thoughts per hour, or 1 thought every 10 seconds. That’s just the average. Needless to say, taking every thought captive is a near impossible task. What does it even mean to take a thought captive? It means we are to check every thought and analyze whether or not it is a thought that God would have. In Matthew 16:23 Jesus calls Peter “Satan” because he “has the things of man in (his) mind, and not the things of God.” If it is godly thought, then we are to keep it, but if it is not a godly thought, ignore it and move on. Many of our thoughts are not the kind of thoughts that God would have: all angry thoughts, all sad thoughts, all prideful thoughts, and all of the thoughts about offense or resentment. The second part of a surrendered life is learning to stop before we act, and ask God what He wants. Is He Lord over every part of your heart or not?
In my life, I am constantly finding parts of my heart that are not quite surrendered. For example, I still struggle with certain personality types when dealing with people. Overall, I think I’m pretty good at dealing with those feelings that arise when dealing with people, but then there are certain types of people that seem to wear me out and break me down. There are certain circumstances that change my mood or remove the peace that Holy Spirit brings. These are areas that I haven’t surrendered. For others, it may be types of music, tattoos, or doctrinal issues. We actually allow these things to change how we interact with people or what we feel. I remember the first time I was in a room where the Holy Spirit entered and I saw 1000 people erupt into tongues. I instantly was filled with “righteous anger”… which clearly is never actually righteous.
Philippians 2:9-12 is a beautiful passage that describes Jesus as our Lord, over all things: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus, Himself, said in Matthew 28:18, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”
This is an issue of control. Who is in control of your thoughts and actions?
If we will truly surrender, then we will truly be free from all things that bother us, no matter what. I love Isaiah 41:10 because it shows me what my life is like when I am surrendered to what God wants. It helps me to trust Him when I don’t necessarily want to let go of control. It’s a beautiful promise to each of us: if you will just let go of your life and let Him lead, He will never let you down:
“Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.”

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