"He cannot give back what you do not give up."

A thought by Mark Batterson, (2013-09-24) from his book, All In: You Are One Decision Away From a Totally Different Life (Kindle Location 536). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

I hear so many people talk about their rights. I have my rights. They don’t have a right to do that to me. But the truth is God wants us to give Him all our rights but He then gives them back to us as privileges. If we would get what we rightly deserve then we would never have anything. But for what our sins did to Him He takes what we give Him and He gives us back grace. We don’t have any rights for what our sins did to Him.

What about your relationships? I don’t deserve how they treat me. I am their parent/child/ spouse. I should be respected. But the truth is God gave them to you to minister to their needs not for them to minister to you and your needs. Give them to God and then God can use you to be what they need you to be and then watch what will happen.

What about your life, your dreams, your plans? How is that going? Why don’t you give them to God and then see what happens. Let Him take how He created you and use you to your fullest potential. See how the stress comes down and the effectiveness comes up.

What about your finances? Let Him have control and see what happens. Here is what Mark says, “The truth of the matter is that you can’t really say mine about anything! Nothing belongs to you — not your house, not your car, not your clothes. Every material thing you own is the by-product of the time, talent, and treasure God has given you. When you kneel at the foot of the cross, the possessive pronoun is eliminated from your vocabulary.”

And you don’t truly have it until you give it to Him so He can give it back to you.

So what are you holding on to?

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