Surrender: Five Minute Friday

I'm super late, but this is my contribution to the Five Minute Friday linkup. Kate Motaung is gracious enough to host us faithfully every week. All you do is view the word prompt, write for five minutes, stop, link up, and then read/comment on the post before yours. It's simple and rewarding and will become something you want to keep doing again and again!


This week's prompt:
Surrender.


"Apart from me, you can do nothing."


Thinking on surrender for the past few days as I was with family for Thanksgiving, I had not planned on linking up. Today, though, after pondering many worship songs joyfully proclaiming how we surrender all, this verse came strongly to mind.

Surrender is actually very difficult for most of us. The hymn would more appropriately be sung, "I Surrender Most." We don't enjoy being humbled. We want to be independent and in control and instead we are helpless from birth.
Even Paul the apostle was not granted complete freedom from needing God.

If we were perfect, would we need to be saved? Salvation is not a momentary change, in my opinion, but a lifetime transformation. Am I saved? Yes, but I am constantly having to surrender that control and that desire to be the god of my life.

We pay homage to a god, but is it the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings that we surrender to? Pay tribute to? Or have we allowed another god to siege us and take away all that our Lord God longs to reward us with?

The video is a song called "I Surrender" by Hillsong. It's about 4 years old.


Thank you for reading!
-Tammy
P.S. Please include your linkup number or URL so I can read your post and comment back!

Common: Five Minute Friday

Delighted to take part in the Twitter Party and the Five Minute Friday linkup this week! Many friends, from many places, writing for five minutes on the same word. Here's the link to the linkup. Kate Motaung is our gracious hostess every week and she's sincere and wonderful!

Our prompt:

Common.

Go!

Internet definition of common:

1. 1.

   occurring, found, or done often; prevalent.

   
   

   "salt and pepper are the two most common seasonings"

   
   

   synonyms:

   usual, ordinary, familiar, regular, frequent, recurrent, everyday; More standard, typical, conventional, stock, commonplace, run-of-the-mill; informalgarden variety "a very common art form" widespread, general, universal, popular, mainstream, prevalent, prevailing, rife, established, well established, conventional, traditional, orthodox, accepted "a common belief"

   antonyms:

   unusual, rare

   • (of an animal or plant) found or living in relatively large numbers; not rare.
   • ordinary; of ordinary qualities; without special rank or position.

     
     

     "the dwellings of common people"

     
     

     synonyms:

     ordinary, normal, average, unexceptional; simple "the common folk"

   • (of a quality) of a sort or level to be generally expected.

     
     

     "common decency"
   • of the most familiar type.

     
     

     "the common or vernacular name"
   • denoting the most widespread or typical species of an animal or plant.

     
     

     "the common blue spruce"
2. 2.

   showing a lack of taste and refinement; vulgar.

   synonyms:

   uncouth, vulgar, coarse, rough, boorish, unladylike, ungentlemanly, ill-bred, uncivilized, unrefined, unsophisticated; More

I'm reminded of the "commoner". That royalty would never stoop so low as to acknowledge a commoner. A common girl.

And yet, we LOVE Cinderella, don't we?!!! The gracious, kind, sweet servant-heart girl who is noticed by the Prince. It's as if her internal beauty was displayed outwardly with one wave of the fairy's wand.

In our deepest hearts, we know that the heart is where the battle lies and the battle is won.
Jesus won the battle, but it is WE who need to surrender. We're stubbornly not allowing Him into the battle. We are trying to win the wars on our own (and usually failing miserably).

But, it's common in America (and other developed countries) to be independent and stubborn. It's applauded to be on your own, on your own two feet. Well, we're also stressed out. We have that in common.

Instead of getting dizzy on the hamster wheel, maybe we should be less common. Maybe we should actually take a Sabbath rest. Honor our fathers and mothers. Cease to kill and slander others with our words and thoughts. Cease to be envious at what others display publicly when we don't know what's in their lives privately.

Jennie Augusta Brownscombe [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Last week I quoted Romans how while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. We have sin in common. And as we approach Thanksgiving Day, I am reminded that the Native Americans had pity and compassion on the unprepared settlers and helped them farm and sustain their very lives that winter. Love is the common thread that binds up all our wounds.

And, love is greater than all other things. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

~Tammy
P.S. List your linkup number or URL in your comment, please! I don't want to miss reading your post. I can't find you any other way unless you're a regular here. :)

Journey: Five Minute Friday

Weekly, friends across the oceans and across the continental United States join together and write on a one-word prompt for five minutes without going back and fixing later. It is in this simple free-write community that I have made many deep eternal friendships. Our faith intertwines us like a brilliant tapestry of lives in different seasons, all brilliantly glorifying the same Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
Want to know more? Go read all of our humble offerings at Kate's linkup.

The prompt this week?
"Journey"

A song came to mind, I'll link the video here. It's called "This Road" by Jars of Clay. I used to listen to this song on repeat when it first came out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z67TTVXi_BM

We are all journeying. I just turned 35 last month and am now legally eligible to run for the office of the President of the United States. I'm beginning to see why there is a minimum age requirement. Until you have lived for a time, you cannot quite see past the end of your own nose to the world around you and to see how your decision can affect so many others.

While content to make my mistakes in private, there is a realization of the immense undertaking we each have as adults. We are leaders. We are influencing our spheres within the world. Some peoples' journeys cross ours in a positive way and others in a negative way.
What we leave behind are our footprints. Our fingerprints. We are the hands and feet of Jesus.
But, are we leaving people longing for us or for Him? We will fade away. How we treat people will be long-lasting.

If I am kind because of Jesus, and I make it known that I love because He loved and loves still, then I am living out Romans 5:8.
⁶ For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰ For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹ More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:6-11)

I want to travel my journey in such a way that others want to journey with me.
The woman described in Proverbs 31:25-26?
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
    and she laughs at the time to come.
 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
    and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

That's who I am striving to become. Not for my glory, but that I would never take away from the reputation of Jesus and what His followers represent. We represent Him. We draw others to Him.

Blessings to you on your journey tonight!
Love,
Tammy

P.S. If you leave me a comment, please leave me your URL or linkup number from Kate's site. I don't have a way to find your post otherwise. :)