Choose Your Word! A New Year’s Practice for a Life of SurrenderSample

As we read yesterday, in 1 Chronicles 29:11, David acknowledges the Lord. But then he moves from that declaration to a dedication.

The emphasis on Yours is also an abandonment to the Lord.

Similarly to David and the people of Israel, I acknowledge the identity of the referent, the magnificent and munificent Yours. And, I am willing to countersign the public acknowledgment of the Lord as a personal abandonment to Him.

Abandonment communicates “relinquishment,” a separation from something or someone to a new, total, and more enduring relationship with something or someone else.

We must carefully consider to whom/what we have abandoned ourselves. Is our new owner capable and available to receive such abandonment? Is he anxious that we might not be faithful to him? Will he keep away from us if we momentarily turn away from him? And will he turn away from us? Will he force himself on us?

We do not need to wonder about God. When I am abandoned to the Lord God, my new owner welcomes, blesses, leads, and uses me. We are never rejected or unloved by Him. Never lonely nor afraid. This owner loves and never loses those who belong to Him.

How do I apply Yours? I start each day with a quiet declarative acknowledgment, often before I roll out of bed, as the last part of my sleep cycle or the first part of my wake cycle. I simply rehearse 1 Chronicles 29:11 and the pregnant paragraph in whisper. And I often sign off my daily notebook entries with “Yours” or “Lord Jesus, your life, your work, your day.” Tomorrow we will consider each of these—our lives, our work, our days—more deeply.