Surrendering to God is the heart of worship. My natural response to an understanding of what God has done for me should be to surrender my life fully to Him. There are three barriers to trusting God:

1. Fear. Before I can fully surrender myself to God I need to be able to trust Him. Fearfulness can keep me from fully trusting Him and trusting His plans for me.
2. Pride. My human pride can keep me from surrendering to God. The desire to control my life is the oldest temptation; the one Satan used to cause Adam and Eve to sin. Warren quotes A.W. Tozer who said, “The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.” When I face my own limitations and realize that I truly do need God, I am able to surrender myself to Him.
3. Confusion. I may be confused as to what it means to surrender to God. One common misconception is that surrendering means giving up rational thought. This is not the case. I need to allow God to let me become what He wants me to be. I need to be obedient to Him. I then need to fully trust in Him to make changes in me that will be for my good, even if at the time it seems painful.

Warren discusses the blessings that will come from surrendering to God. First, I will experience peace, then freedom and finally God’s power in my life. As a fully surrendered person I can be used by God for great things.

The chapter closes with showing how everyone eventually surrenders to something. If I do not surrender to God I will surrender to money, lust or even to my own ego. “The greatest hindrance to God’s blessing in your life is not others, it is yourself.” So it is crucial that I surrender to God, not just once, but in a way that is ongoing. On a daily basis I need to tell God and myself that I am fully surrender to Him and that I do trust Him and His plans for my life.

Bible Passages

Warren quotes the Bible twenty seven times using ten translations and paraphrases. A few of these merit mention. He speaks (correctly) of how God has good plans for my life. To do this he quotes Jeremiah 29:11. This passage presents a promise God made to Israel. To say that this promise applies to all Christians is a stretch. A few chapters later in Jeremiah 44:27 God says, “I will watch over them for adversity and not for good…[they] shall be consumed by the sword and famine.” I suspect Warren would not say that the latter verse applies to us today, but logically, according to his use, it should.

In speaking about “the blessing of surrender” Warren quotes Job 22:21, saying that this verse shows how a surrendered life will help me experience peace. Job 22:21 reads, “Stop quarreling with God! If you agree with him, you will have peace at last, and things will go well for you.” Do you know who is speaking in that verse? That was Eliphaz, the friend of Job! Job’s friends are hardly the source of godly wisdom. That verse is taken far out of context. Warren knows better than this!

Immediately afterwards, he says that when we surrender we experience freedom. He does not define what he means by freedom, but the passage he quotes very obviously discusses freedom from sin. He quotes Romans 6:17. What he leaves out is the next verse which says that since we are freed from sin, we are now “slaves to righteousness.” So yes, we are freed, but at the same time we are again bound. Furthermore, this verse does not talk about freedom we obtain through surrendering to God. Rather, it speaks about freedom we obtain by becoming Christians. This freedom is given to all believers the moment they become Christians. It is not withheld and given only to those who surrender.

Finally, he quotes the Amplified paraphrase of Phillipians 4:13 as “I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him who infuses inner strength into me, that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency.” The pop-psych phrases in that verse make me squirm! A more accurate translation the verse is, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” The meaning of the verse gains nothing with the addition of the extra words and concepts.

Point to Ponder

Today’s point to ponder is “the heart of worship is surrender.” We live in a culture that frowns on the very idea of surrender. That word has become, like submission, a word that carries negative consequences. How many jokes have been made using France as the punchline because of her long list of surrenders? Yet God calls me to go against my natural instincts and to surrender my life to Him. It seems that God is good at forcing me out of my comfort zone. As he calls me to surrender, so he calls me to submit myself to authority, even if the authorities are not godly men. He tells wives to submit to their husbands and tells us all to submit ourselves to God. Part of the Christian life is going against my natural instincts and trying to recover some sense of the relationship men had to God before we fell. When I surrender myself to God and submit myself to His will, I can begin to understand the relationship as it was before sin, where man and God walked in perfect communion.

Up Next

Tomorrow’s topic is Becoming Best Friends With God

Day nine of The Purpose Driven Life begins with the statement, “The smile of God is the goal of your life.” And certainly Rick Warren has been building to this statement. Because pleasing God is the first purpose of my life, it is crucial that I understand how to do that. To illustrate how to please God, Warren uses the example of Noah. Noah was a man who pleased God and in his time was the only righteous man on earth. When God decided to wipe out the human race, he spared Noah. We learn five acts that make God smile.

• God smiles when I love Him supremely. I need to love God more than anything else in the world. In this section Warren speaks about God desiring my love and longing for me to know Him and to spend time with Him. I am not completely comfortable with those types of sentiments, but am not sure if that is a legitimate concern or not. That is something I need to do some research on.
• God smiles when I trust Him completely. Noah trusted God even though what God said seemed crazy. Noah had to build a boat hundreds of miles from the ocean. But he did it without complaining and without questioning. What an amazing example to me of obedience!
• God smiles when I obey Him wholeheartedly. Noah obeyed God to the smallest detail. He did not try to do things His own way, but trusted that God’s ways were best. Any parent knows that delayed obedience or partial obedience is no different than disobedience. A paragraph in this section is the highlight of what I learned today:

  God doesn’t owe you an explanation or reason for everything He asks you to do. Understanding can wait, but obedience can’t. Instant obedience will teach you more about God than a lifetime of Bible discussions. In fact, you will never understand commands until you obey them first. Obedience unlocks understanding.

• God smiles when I praise and thank Him continually. God loves it when I praise Him. It brings Him pleasure when I give Him the praise and worship He deserves.
• God smiles when I use my abilities. This is similar to what has been discussed in past chapters. Every activity I do can be an act of worship. Every ability God gave me can be used to His glory. I enjoyed the reference to the movie Chariots of Fire (one of my all-time favorites). Eric Liddell says, “I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel God’s pleasure.” Even something like running can be done to God’s pleasure if we are using our God-given abilities for His glory.

The chapter closes by asking, “Is pleasing [God] your deepest desire?” When I live in the light of eternity I should come to the realization that the amount of pleasure I get out of life is far less important than the enjoyment God gets out of my life.

Bible Passages

Warren quotes the Bible twenty seven times using nine translations and paraphrases. I noted a couple of concerns. First, concerning Noah Warren says that God saved Noah from the flood because he brought pleasure to God. In support he quotes Genesis 6:8 which The Living Bible renders as, “Noah was a pleasure to the Lord.” The NASB reads, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” In the context of the more accurate translation we see that Noah found favor, which when coming from God always indicates unmerited favor, in God’s eyes. In the paraphrase it is made to sound like Noah deserved God’s favor. This is more than simply a different translation but a vast difference in doctrine. One speaks of grace and the other of works.

Hebrews 11:7 is quoted in The Message’s paraphrase and bears little resemblance to the original meaning. An accurate translation says nothing about “As a result, Noah became intimate with God.”

Warren speaks about Jesus’ sacrifice meaning the end of animal sacrifices. This, of course, is accurate. He then says that, among other things, we are now to offer “the sacrifice of thanksgiving” which David speaks of in Psalm 116:17. However, the sacrifice of thanksgiving David speaks of is just that! It refers to the regular sacrifice the Jews offered to God in the Old Testament. Though I agree that we can now offer God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, Warren chooses a strange way to back this claim.

Question To Consider

Today’s question to consider is “Since God knows what is best, in what areas of my life do I need to trust Him most?” For me, as for most people, I find that finances is a tough area to trust God. Though He has never let me down in this area, I still find it difficult to trust that He is in control and that He knows best. I often feel that He has overlooked something and that He really should be giving me more. Deep inside I always know that I can count on Him, but I do know this is an area where I need to develop trust.

Up Next

Tomorrow’s topic is The Heart of Worship

I was planned for God’s pleasure. With this sentence Rick Warren begins day eight of The Purpose Driven Life and his discussion of the first of my five purposes. The first purpose of my life is to bring enjoyment and pleasure to God. As the crowning achievement of His creation, I can bring Him pleasure like nothing else.

Bringing pleasure to God is called “worship.” Therefore, anything that I do that brings Him pleasure is an act of worship. The Christian world has long operated under the false idea that only music is worshipping God, but, as is quite commonly taught these days, worship extends into every area of my life. The term “praise and worship music” is a misnomer, as all music, when sung to God, is worshipful. This realization of worship being more than music is what gave Matt Redman the inspiration for his beautiful song, The Heart of Worship:

When the music fades
And all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth
That will bless Your heart

I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart

I’m coming back to the heart of worship
It’s all about you
All about you, Jesus
I’m sorry Lord for the thing I’ve made it
When it’s all about You
It’s all about you, Jesus

That song speaks of a realization that music can be used to drive us away from worship. Music can become an idol in a worship service if not used the way God intended it. If music is seen as the only legitimate form of worship, it is not true worship.

When I properly understand what worship is I will come to realize that worship is not for my benefit. Yes, I can be uplifted and encouraged through it, but worshipping God is not receiving but is giving away. I give worship to God as an expression of my love for Him and to give Him the glory He deserves.

Warren wraps up the chapter by stating that worship is not a part of my life; it is my life. The Bible commands that we praise God at all times and to worship Him continually. Therefore, any activity that is done for God’s glory and for His pleasure becomes an act of worship. “This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship - doing everything as if you were doing it for Jesus.”

Bible Passages

Warren quotes the Bible eleven times using six translations and paraphrases. As he tends to do, he often uses just a snippet of a verse and loses some of the true meaning. For example, he quotes John 4:23 as saying, “The Father seeks worshipers. The more accurate translation is “such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” A small point, I admit, but when seen in the proper context we see that the verse actually speaks of true worshipers. God does not desire just any worshipers; He desires those who will worship Him in spirit and truth. In other places he seems to find the words “worship” or “purpose” where those words are at best only hinted at. It seems at times that if seven translations said “good pleasure” and one translation said “purpose,” Warren would use the one that said “purpose” regardless of the accuracy of that word. And as I have said previously, I do not disagree with what he teaches; I simply disagree with the way he uses Scripture at times.

Point To Ponder

Today’s point to ponder is “I was planned for God’s pleasure.” As with Warren’s statements from day seven, this seems to clash with his teaching in day two that I was created so God could love me. I find it an incredible thought that God created me (and you!) for the express purpose of bringing Him glory. And I now have the choice to live each day in worship to Him; to live each day for the very purpose He created me. Of course this also means that I can choose to live each day for my own purposes. What a sobering thought that every moment of every day I can choose to rob God of worship that is rightly His. And what a glorious thought that in even the most boring aspects of my life I can glorify and honor Him by doing these tasks, however menial, as an act of worship. My prayer is that every word I say, every thought I think and every deed I do will be done as an act of worship to my Savior.

Up Next

Tomorrow’s topic is What Makes God Smile?

In my Home Church (Bible Study / Cell Group) this week we are studying the prophet Daniel. Specifically we will be examining him as a shining example of a man who stood firm in his convictions. When commanded to cease worshipping God, he never considered disobeying God. Instead, he pressed on with his routine of praying three times each day. He knew there would be fearsome consequences, yet trusted that obeying God was preferable to any punishment he could face at the hands of men. You can read the story, known to children around the world as “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” in Daniel chapter 5.

Studying Daniel made me think of another section of the Bible that has been on my mind recently. Romans 2:24 reads, “For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you”. This passage refers to behavior among the Jewish people of Rome during Paul’s days. These people had turned their backs on God and sunk into every type of ungodly behavior. I find it a sobering thought that people who do not know God can blaspheme His name because of my behavior. What a responsibility it is to be a light to the world and to “walk the walk.”

This brings me back about 650 years to Daniel. Had Daniel backed down and ceased worshipping God, or even if he had partially backed down and made his worship private, the name of God would have been blasphemed by the Persians. They would have seen Daniel as a man who was afraid to stand for his convictions. But Daniel did not back down. He stood firm and rather than being blasphemed, the name of God was exalted by the Gentiles. In Daniel 5:26 - 27 we read the proclamation of the Persian king:

“For He is the living God and enduring forever,
And His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed,
And His dominion will be forever.
He delivers and rescues and performs signs and wonders
In heaven and on earth,
Who has also delivered Daniel from the power of the lions.”

Here was a man, a Gentile, who praised God for His greatness. He was driven to this proclamation because of the wondrous work God performed in rescuing Daniel. It goes without saying that had Daniel allowed himself to be intimidated and had he refused to stand strong for his convictions, the king would never have praised God. Rather His holy name would have been blasphemed.

What an honor and what a great responsibility it is to call ourselves by the name of our Savior and to be His ambassadors on earth! As Christians we bear the name of Christ. Through our example - through our lives - God’s name can be praised and God’s name can be blasphemed.