Allowing Jesus to be Lord of Your Life

 

Question:

Several months ago you answered the question “How do I know when Jesus is Lord of my life?” The question I have is “How do I allow Jesus to be the Lord of my life?”

Answer:

Let’s use an “acrostic” with the word “Lord” to answer this question.

1. L – Love. Jesus says in Luke 10:27: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind.” Jesus cannot be Lord of our lives if we are not willing to love Him with our whole heart and give Him our complete devotion. So often, we hold back as we are self-seeking and self-cen­tered and are not willing to fully turn our lives over to Him. Obviously, this is a life time process, but we need to be making progress as we yield our lives to Him. So often, we can demonstrate our love for God through ministry to others.
2. O – Obey. Talking about Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews wrote: “… He became the source of salvation to all who obey Him” (Heb. 5:9). Disobedience brought sin and death to the human race. Christ’s death on the cross provided forgiveness and life to those who obey Him. Our will must be surrendered to God. Christ becomes Lord of our lives when we seek to do, say, and be what He wants. Peter said in Acts 5:29 that “we must obey God rather than men.”
3. R – Rely. We read in Proverbs 3:5: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.” We are living in a world that relies on family, jobs, money, law­yers, psychiatrists, etc. Scripture tells us that we must rely on God. People and things can be helpful, but they cannot satisfy the needs of the soul. God can and will as we see in Psalm 37:5: “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will act.” That’s a promise to us, and God’s doesn’t break promises!
4. D – Duty. Again, hearing the words of Jesus: “The harvest is plentiful, but the labor­ers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38). So many Christians are all talk and no walk! Many fail in their Christian respon­sibility; they are unfaithful, therefore unfruitful. There are many commands in Scripture for Christians in terms of their duty or responsibility: “Make disciples” (Matthew 28:19); “Be wit­nesses” (Acts 1:8); “Be ambassadors” (11 Cor. 5:20); “sow seeds” (Matt. 13)—just to name a few. James said: “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself” (James 2:17).

I have collected a few “sayings” over the years that might help us to understand this concept:

“Live so that if people get to know you, they will get to know Jesus better.” “Live so that when you tell someone you are a Christian, it confirms their suspicions instead of surprising them.”

“Live so that the preacher won’t have to lie at your funeral.”

“Live as if Jesus died yesterday, rose this morning, and is coming back tomorrow.”

These are some of the steps you can take in “making Jesus the Lord of your life.”