Prayer expert Jennifer Kennedy Dean examines surrendered in Christ in her new book, Altar’d.
Our flesh holds us back and keeps us repeating patterns over and over again in our lives unless we discover God has chosen to set us free.
“If you will just let God do the work he intends to do through this experience you will come out of it on the other side with resurrection power.”
In the midst of challenging times, we must choose to live surrendered. Jennifer calls us to take the noun “altar” and make it a verb in our lives by surrendering our flesh.
“You can know this about God. He is good and what he does is good.”
She explains that the flesh in our lives tries to take over and keep everything ordered. Jennifer defines flesh as areas of our lives that are not in totally and completely surrendered to God. Our flesh will try to take over if we give it any chance to, but it will also ruin us.
“Working in the flesh just wears you out.”
Surrender isn’t easy and can look differently for different people. Jennifer explains how the process has looked for her in the past and currently.
First she has to recognize that there is a problem. Then, every time she begins to realize that her flesh is engaging, she can be intentional about not following that pattern. She knows she’s entered into the power of resurrection when something happens that used to engage the flesh but it doesn’t now.
Although the process of continual surrendered life isn’t easy, there is joy waiting at the end.
“When God starts walking you through a crucifixion there’s nothing fun about it except that you know he has brought this crucifixion into your experience so he can give you resurrection.”
Key Scriptures: John 3:6, Ephesians 5:18-19
