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The book of Romans gives us the confession to make when we are accepting salvation:  If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. (Romans 10:9-10). This confession acknowledges Christ as both Savior and Lord. 

When it comes to friendship with God, your intimacy can only go as far as His lordship goes in your life. Many times I encounter believers who have surrendered to Him as Savior, but very few truly have surrendered to Him as both Savior and Lord. The quality of life that one leads reveals where on the spectrum they fall. Naturally, it would be best if one surrendered to both our master’s lordship and saving, but lordship in its essence simply means being owned by another; which is where we borrow words like “landlord” from. 

Consequently, accepting the lordship of Jesus means living as one who is owned by their master and our carnal nature does not particularly fancy being accountable to another than itself. This is the chief quality that made Jesus in the flesh carry out every single assignment that our Father in heaven had commissioned Him for. We read several times through the gospels that our Lord Jesus constantly confessed that ‘he does nothing except what he sees the Father do (John 5:19)’, ‘he speaks nothing except what he hears the Father say(John 12:49)’, ‘he’s come to do only what is His Father’s will(John 6:38)’.

It is in this manner that He was able to empty Himself and become a servant. Being poor in spirit is the quickest shortcut to experiencing the fullness of Christ’s lordship and its fruit. As revivalist Andrew Murray once said, it is not merely about letting God work through you occasionally, it is about abandoning your life so that He can live His life through you [Selah]. Poverty of spirit, as spoken of in Matthew 5:3, is simply a metaphorical way to speak of having complete reliance on God and being aware of our spiritual poverty. 

As a result of this awareness, we come to realize that it’s the only way we can be able to fulfill instructions like forgiving seventy times seven, never cease to pray, be excessive in doing good, counting others more significant than self, putting others before our own gains and several other seemingly impossible requests made by the Lord. It was not until I understood that this kind of life is what enables us to be unhindered vessels of Christ, like He himself was fully man, that the greatest prayer that I keep before me to date is Lord “make me humble, the same way you made Christ”.

One might argue that it is our responsibility to humble ourselves, and in a way that could be true but if you have not yet realized the way of the flesh is that, it has nothing good to produce in itself. So when we say Lord ‘humble me’ what we mean is help me be sensitive to every opportunity of denying myself, putting another first, every prompting to speak life through prayer and every other work of the spirit we know of. Our part becomes a resolve to be responsive in good will and yielded hearts and not too long after we begin to manifest the same fruit as our role model, Jesus Christ. If any man should desire anything else after salvation in this life, let it be to become humble after the manner of Christ. 

It is no marvel in His parting command He assures us things do become easier when we learn from Him as one who is gentle and meek (Matthew 11:29). What appears hard in these tasks that challenge us daily such as kindness, patience, forgiveness, honor and the likes are actually the very yoke in the former passage that is empowered by meekness and lowliness of heart. Child of God, such are the things that characterized the one perfect man to walk the face of the earth, and He is on the inside of you. Selah! 

 

If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and you feel that this is the perfect time, pray this prayer:

 

“Lord Jesus, I thank you because you died for my sins and you were raised for my glory. Today, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I am born again. Amen.”



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