Surrender Is the Heart of Worship

"Give yourselves to God ... surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes." Romans 6:13 (TEV)

The heart of worship is surrender.
Surrender is an unpopular word, disliked almost as much as the word submission. It implies losing, and no one wants to be a loser. 
Surrender evokes the unpleasant images of admitting defeat in battle, forfeiting a game, or yielding to a stronger opponent. The word is almost always used in a negative context. Captured criminals surrender to the authorities.
In our competitive world we're taught to never quit trying, never give up, and never give in - so we don't hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable.
Yet, the Bible teaches us that rather than trying to win, succeed, overcome, and conquer, we should instead yield, submit, obey, and surrender. 
And by surrendering to God, we enter into the heart of worship. This is true worship: bringing pleasure to God as we give ourselves completely to him. 
Surrendering is best demonstrated in obedience, cooperating with your Creator. You say "Yes, Lord" to whatever he asks of you.
In fact, "No, Lord" is a contradiction. You can't claim Jesus as your Lord when you refuse to obey him. Peter modeled surrender when, after a night of failed fishing, Jesus told him to try again: "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets." Surrendered people obey God's word, even when it doesn't make sense.
God is not a cruel slave driver or a bully who uses brute force to coerce us into submission. He doesn't try to break our will, but woos us to himself, so that we might offer it freely to him. God is a lover and a liberator, and surrendering brings freedom, not bondage.
When we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus, we discover that he is not a tyrant but a savior; not a boss, but a brother; not a dictator, but a friend.

God Uses People Who Practice Good Health Principles

"Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God's glory." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 TEV) "Sanctify" means to dedicate something for personal use by God. You can take your house and say, "God, I dedicate this house to you." You can say, "God, I take this car and dedicate it to you." It means taking whatever you have and giving it to God for his use. The Bible says, "Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God; he bought you for a price. So use your bodies for God's glory" (1 Corinthians 6:19-20 TEV). "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use].     So whoever cleanses himself [from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupting influences] will [then himself] be a vessel set apart and useful for honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work." (2 Tim 2:20-21) God uses all kinds of vessels, but he wants your vessel to be pure, clean, and healthy. If you want to be used by God, you need to get in shape. When your body — your vessel  — is sanctified for God's use, it needs to be in the best possible shape to do the things God calls you to do. The Bible says, "You made me; you created me. Now give me the sense to follow your commands" (Psalm 119:73 NLT). God set up the principles of good health. He says you have to balance eating and exercising and sleeping. You need all three of these for good health.  God wants you to be just as healthy physically as you are spiritually so that he can do a great work through you. Talk About It How are your sleeping habits? Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is go to bed. Do you eat to live or live to eat? How do you think your eating habits affect your spiritual health?

Change and Challenge

Whenever we start to tune in; whenever we start to act on the purpose, passions and priorities we’ve identified inside ourselves, we step into the streams of change. In big ways or small, life becomes different.
Many people don’t like change. They’re happy to live within normality. They may even be afraid of change. They want to stay out conflict and storm. But, to believe that you can evade or avoid change is a fantasy. The one thing constant in life is change and you can either change with it or get left behind.I hope that you are not reluctant to change and that you don’t fear it. If you look back at your life, you’ll see that you have changed over and over again. If you’re not where you want to be in life, that doesn't mean that changing has failed you – in fact, it probably means that you haven’t changed enough.Hopefully, these three P’s – purpose, passions and priorities – have given you a thirst for change, or at least a willingness to drink from that cup. But, I also want you to realize that change will test you – more than that, it will proof you. Proof is a wonderful word. In addition to the usual meaning of evidence concerning something, it can also mean “to test for strength or durability.” Change will do that to you. Proof also means “to treat or coat for the purpose of rendering resistant to damage or deterioration.” Change will do that too – in resisting the opposition, you will build up your muscles.

“If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain”.

We all face storms in our life, and we need to learn to weather them. There are three ways. Some storms you walk through. You stay steadfast and remain patient in the face of the challenge. Some storms you calm, with the help of God’s peace. And some storms you walk over. You do something you never thought you could do before. You take a job you didn’t think you could do. You “jump the facts.” You ignore what everyone says and what’s been done before and you take up the challenge. You walk on water; you jump the facts. When I was nineteen I couldn't get into the university I wanted, but by my early twenties, I was teaching there.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today. If something bad happens one day, learn from it and move forward, because you can be sure that something new will happen today. Life can be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards

Adapted from: Tim Storey book