Committing Fully
As he writes this book, Michael Cassidy tells his story of coming to the faith. At school he used to go to Chapel every week and he said: “It meant a lot to me. But I refused point blank to say one of the prayers in the communion preparation manual - ‘oh God, take me, make me and use me to your honour and glory’. This struck me as an absurdly extravagant self-offering and I refused to say it. If God got hold of me like that, he would resolve to make me miserable and send me to a monastery. And I surely knew even then that I was not the monastic type.”
Fear of Surrender
So he had this hesitancy in his life to truly commit. He thought, “oh no, if I truly commit to God, he's surely going to ask me to do something radical. And I just don't have it in me. “
I think many of us struggle with that, don't we? We sort of commit, but we don't really commit because we are afraid that God might ask too much of us.
A Life-Changing Decision
But while he was in college, Cassidy realized that even though he mentally believed in Christ, he never really had given his life to Him properly. A friend asked him if he knew Jesus, and he said, “I suppose I do”. But even he wasn't convinced of his own faith.
Then after a long conversation with his friend Robert, he was asked this question: “Have you ever asked Jesus into your life as your Saviour, master and friend? Have you surrendered yourself to Him?” Michael honestly realized that he hadn't. And he admitted this to his friend, who said, “Well, let's kneel down and pray right here.”
Everything in Michael seemed to rally against this. He didn't want to do it. But Robert told him about how Jesus stands at the door and knocks—to come into his heart if he would open the door. And so, they prayed. For the first time, he really asked Christ into his life.
A New Beginning
The next day he started to realize what a massive commitment this was. In a beautiful paragraph, he writes this: “Gradually during that Sunday morning, I became aware of a presence. It was uncanny, somehow He was with me, in me, beside me. I left my room; He came with me. This was something new. I had come to know Him. I did feel like a new person. They weren't just words. They expressed what felt new, remade, reborn. It all came,” he says, “because I claimed the verse in Revelation and held on to the promise for all I was worth.“
Now how about you? Are you afraid to give your all to Jesus? Have you believed in Him, sort of, but not really surrendered yourself to Him?
Maybe today can be the day that you commit to Him for the first time or recommit to Him because He's fallen out of the center of your life.
Friends, He stands at the door of your heart and mine and knocks. Today He wants to be at the center. He wants to come in and take place as King and supreme friend in your life.
Will you let Him in? Will you put Him at the center? Will you claim that promise with all your heart and not let go?
If you will, friends, He will be faithful, and He will come in and be your God, and you'll discover what life is all about. Don't hold back. Give Jesus your all today, and like Michael Cassidy, you'll find a deep joy and an abiding friendship that nobody else can offer.
