When Man Listens: The First Elements

When Man Listens: The First Elements

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The next practical result of my `willingness’ will be that I shall take any steps which God shows me, to put right the wrong I. have done. There may be a broken relationship to be healed, an apology to be offered, a sin to be confessed to the person most concerned, reparation to be made for some dishonesty. For one man the step of honesty with God and with his fellows meant offering to go back to the country lie had left and face his trial for breach of trust. For another it meant admitting to his University that he had received a diploma on the basis of a false statement. Others have had to disillusion altogether misled families about the kind of persons they really are.

These first steps of restitution are absolutely necessary if I am to start the new life clear with God and other people. There will be a great many things I can never put right now. Even the restitution I can make will seem altogether inadequate. I must simply accept the wonder of God’s forgiveness, but I dare not take it unless I am prepared to do everything which can honestly and usefully be done to put wrong right.

I must be just as practical in making effective the new quality of life that God is leading me to see. If I realize my indiscipline, I must pin myself down to some definite stepperhaps getting up earlier, replying to letters, or promptness in keeping my appointments. If I find myself tied up by shyness, it may mean going out among people, or speaking in front of them until the fear is broken. If God speaks to me about unselfishness, it may involve some simple, but costly step at home. If my treatment of my employees, or my attitude to my business rivals has been unloving, there will be immediate steps to take in establishing new relationships. Vague resolutions and dreams of what I might be, never lead to God control. I must let God pin me down to the next thing to be done.

These, then, are the first elements in a surrender of life to God-honest and thorough facing of myself with God, restitution to others, and practical steps of new obedience. They are best talked through with another person. It is so easy to deceive myself, to escape the real shame and humiliation of sin, or to evade the necessary steps. To face a completely honest talk with someone I can trust makes me see myself as I could never do in any other way. It may bring to light much that I have massed. It will certainly make it harder for me to go back or postpone carrying out my resolutions. This is one of the purposes for which God has given us fellowship. It is dangerous to neglect it.

Surrender goes on. It is not simply an initial act. It is a process carried deeper every day. We find out more of ourselves to give to God. We find out more of what God can do with us. But it must begin, and it is possible for us now to give all we know of ourselves to all we know of God.

This initial surrender, if it is thorough and honest, is met at once from God’s side. When we hand over, God takes charge, and things begin to happen. A world of strain falls from us. The business of running life is off our hands. We find that we get through more work, because it is being ordered better. We meet people we were afraid of, and discover that fear has gone. A habit that always beat us seems to have lost its power. Someone wee could not bear appears to us in a new light, and we love them. We come through an ordeal and know that it was not in our own strength.