So what prevents people from surrendering their hearts to Jesus? We had some great discussions in the evenings with our high school students in Ecuador. Mostly we focused on faith.
“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists…” (Hebrews 11:6) Someone who does not believe God exists cannot surrender to Him. More and more in our society we see ‘unbelief’ as the huge barrier that separates people from God and from one another.
But the matter of ‘will’ can also be a barrier. On our last night in Quito we split the boys and girls for our final devotional. Another leader and I sat with seven young men in our hotel. Knowing the goal of faith is to trust fully in who Jesus is and what God has accomplished through Him, my friend shared the gospel from Paul’s letter to the Romans. After reading the following verses, we concluded that naming Jesus “Lord” means totally surrendering our will to Him.
“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, ‘Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame.’” (Romans 10:9-11)
“So what are the barriers that keep us from this faith?” we asked. Their answers were from a teenage vantage point, but such honest responses reveal some of the reasons people of all ages decline Christ’s invitation. A sixteen-year-old said, “We don’t want to change. We like who we are and don’t want to embrace a life that calls us to be different.” An eighteen-year-old stated, “We enjoy our independence. We basically do what we want when we want and we really don’t someone telling us what to do.” A seventeen-year-old suggested, “Pride is the barrier. Pride keeps people from surrendering to Jesus.”
Sadly, we know that any barrier between us and Christ keeps us from true joy, true freedom, and true life. Our enemy knows that the gift purchased at the Cross is the hope for all men so he deceives through any method he can use. May we detect Satan’s lies and learn to trust the Father more and more.
Here’s a secret to growth I picked up in an Ecuadorian church:
“Asi que la fe viene del oir, y el oir, por la palabra de Cristo.” Romanos 10:17