(A Life Fully Yielded and a Life Freely Receiving)
June 13th brings the believer into a beautiful paradox: the most fruitful and creative life is not the life that strives to originate something from itself, but the life that is fully surrendered to Christ. And that surrendered life continues to flourish because it learns to receive freely what God freely gives.
The Creativity That Flows from Surrender
Chambers writes:
“The one true mark of a saint of God is the inner creativity that flows from being totally surrendered to Jesus Christ.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers is not speaking primarily about artistic ability, originality, or natural talent.
He is speaking about the life of God finding expression.
When the life remains governed by self, it tends to repeat the same patterns:
- self-preservation,
- self-justification,
- self-direction,
- self-interest.
But when the life is surrendered to Christ, something new begins to emerge.
The life of the Son is inherently fruitful.
It responds wisely where the self would react.
It loves where the self would withdraw.
It endures where the self would abandon hope.
It finds ways for divine life to be expressed in circumstances where human resources would seem exhausted.
This is the creativity of sonship.
Not inventing something independent of God.
But allowing the life of Christ to find fresh expression through a yielded vessel.
The Father is not merely producing religious conformity.
He is manifesting the life of the Son.
And that life is endlessly rich in its expression.
The Simplicity of Receiving
Spurgeon writes:
“Jesus says, ‘Take freely.’” (Morning and Evening)
Spurgeon directs attention to something equally important.
The life of sonship is not sustained through striving alone.
It is sustained through receiving.
The self naturally wants to earn, deserve, achieve, and secure. Yet the language of grace remains wonderfully simple:
“Take freely.”
The believer receives forgiveness freely.
Life freely.
Communion freely.
Strength freely.
The Father’s gifts are not purchased through spiritual achievement.
They are received through faith.
This preserves the life from pride.
Everything that sustains sonship originates in God before it is ever experienced by the believer.
The life remains healthy when it remembers that it is first a receiver before it becomes an expression.
Where the Two Meet: Receiving Produces Expression
These truths belong together.
A surrendered life becomes creative because it is continually receiving from its true source.
The believer does not manufacture divine life.
He receives it.
And because he receives it, he can express it.
The order matters.
Receive first.
Manifest second.
The life that attempts to express what it has not received becomes strained and artificial.
But the life that continually receives from Christ finds that the life of Christ naturally begins to appear through it.
One truth describes the expression.
The other reveals the source.
Together they preserve both humility and fruitfulness.
Pastoral Orientation
June 13th calls for surrender and receptivity.
Do not seek merely to become useful or impressive.
Allow the life of Christ to find expression through complete surrender.
Do not live as though everything depended upon your effort.
Remember that Jesus still says, “Take freely.”
As you continue walking “after the spirit,” you will find that the most fruitful life is not the most self-driven life, but the life most fully yielded and most freely receiving from Christ.
Remain surrendered. Remain receptive.
And you will discover a life that is continually renewed from its true source, and increasingly manifests the richness, beauty, and creativity of the life of the Son before the Father.