Give Up!

I loved wrestling with my cousins when I was a kid.  We would pretend we were G.I. Joes, ninjas, the Dukes of Hazard, and a million other things.  Regardless of the fantasy, it always led to a wrestling match.  Because I am a poor wrestler, I always lost.  Every wrestling match ended with me yelling, “I give up!  I give up!”

By yelling, “I give up,” I was signaling several things all at once.  I was admitting that I was helpless.  I was pleading for mercy (my cousin wouldn’t stop rubbing my face into the ground until I gave up).  I was giving control of the situation to my (much tougher) cousin.

We can treat our relationship with God like a childish wrestling match.  We envision God trying to overpower us and impose His will on us.  We think that we need to out maneuver God in order to make choices for ourselves.  Then, God pins us down, we give up, and let God have control of our lives.  But, God doesn’t work like that.

One of the last things that Jesus says to His disciples on earth is this: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” (Matthew 28:18).  The power is already God’s.  He does not have to wrestle it from us.  God Almighty does not need to force His will on us.  From the get go, He has the authority.  We “give up” by simply accepting an already existing fact:  Jesus is Lord.

As we worship this week, we are letting God know, “We give up!”  The entire reason we are here today is to give up (sacrifice) to the fact the Jesus is Lord.  We read scriptures that remind us that we are helpless.  We sing songs that state our need for mercy.  We pray prayers giving control to God.  In doing so, we are not giving up because God forced us to.  We are simply declaring what has always been true:  Jesus is Lord!