I believe that every believer reaches a point in time where they find that their head and their heart are in constant battle with one another. That in the pursuit to follow and serve Jesus Christ that there can come a time that what they desire clashes with, and does not line up with, the plan that God has laid out before them. I myself am struggling with the fact that the desires of my heart and the plan God has clearly laid out for me do not match up. Sometimes in the midst of the craziness of life, we start to make our own plans and start to follow our own desires. We seek to satisfy ourselves rather than to serve the one that breathed life into us. But as we've given our lives to Jesus, we've given Him permission to lead it. So when we start to look down a different path then the one that He has drawn out, there's going to be conflict that arises in you.. that's when you have to decide.

Are you going to trust Jesus or are you going to follow your desires?

I was having some quiet time today and was listening to Bethel Live on pandora (highly recommend it) and this song called "The Cost" by Rend Collective Experiment came on, and the lyrics really laid heavily on my heart. Here are the lyrics:

"I'm saying yes to you And no to my desires I'll leave myself behind And follow You

I'll walk the narrow road 'Cause it leads me to You I'll fall but grace Will pick me up again

I've counted up the cost Oh, I've counted up the cost Yes, I've counted up the cost And You are worth it

I do not need safety As much as I need You You're dangerous But Lord, You're beautiful

I'll chase You through the pain I'll carry my cross 'Cause real love Is not afraid to bleed

Jesus, take my all Take my everything I've counted up the cost And You're worth everything"

Take a minute and just read over those lyrics again and soak up what it says. Really capture the beauty of a full surrender.

All my life, one thing I can be completely certain of is that Jesus has never once steered me wrong or was not looking out for my best interest. We are God's precious children, we are the loves of His life and He is always looking to guard our hearts and to provide us with the greatest life we could possibly imagine. When we decided to follow Jesus, we decided to give up everything and to trust him with our lives. To follow Jesus means to have faith that no matter how painful or unclear the road ahead may be, that He is going to not only protect us, but provide for us. That if He is leading us away from the life that we desire for ourselves, that there is something even greater coming up ahead.

Galatians 2:20 says, " I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." 

Sometimes we just have to say yes to Jesus Even when we don't understand, even we when it's not what we want and it's not what we desire, even when it's painful, if we are serious about laying our lives down to follow Jesus Christ then thats what we need to do, lay our lives down. And that includes what we desire.  The lyrics of that song are so relevant when it says, "I'll chase You through the pain, I'll carry my cross, 'Cause real love is not afraid to bleed. Jesus, take my all take my everything. I've counted up the cost, and You're worth everything." I don't know about you guys, but Jesus is worth everything to me. I can confidently say that not one person in my life has loved me, cared for me, provided for me, protected me, or shown me the amount of grace, hope, compassion and mercy as He has.

An amazing, God-fearing friend of mine who passed away a few years ago wrote something on twitter that my hometown and I have always held close to our hearts.. and that is this: "Jobs, sports and people will fail you. God will not. He is a righteous savior that has not, and will never fail you."  -Jacob Logan

As followers of Christ, we have to trust Him. Everything on earth that we desire will not complete us and will fail us, but God will never fail us. He has an almighty and perfect plan and because of that, we know that if He closes a door in our lives that that door being closed is EXACTLY what we need. We can trust that as long as we follow Jesus, that he will not let us down. We can trust that He knows us even better then we know ourselves and that the glory that is presented at the end of the day will be worth the suffering or pain that comes with laying our desires down to live the life that God has planned for us. Romans 8:18 is a common but extraordinary verse stating "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."  It's time to take our minds off of what it is that we want or how undesirable it is to leave those things behind, and its time that we look to God and trust. Trust and rejoice in the fact that God has everything under control, and that the glory that He is going to reveal to us is going to be absolutely amazing.

A Complete Surrender Following Jesus means a complete surrender. It means saying yes to Him and saying no to our desires. It means surrendering every aspect of our lives over to Him and saying, "Jesus, I love you and I trust you. Lead me to where you want me to go. I leave everything I want and everything I desire behind, and I give you all of me. Take me and mold me; have your way in me, Jesus. I will follow you where ever you go." We are able to stand firm in the fact that all of God's promises are true and that He is our ultimate leader; that He will lead us to glorious places beyond anything that we could measure. We just have to trust Him. And when you do, get ready.. Because He's going to blow your mind.