Surrendering all

Lift up your eyes

E. Stanley Jones was probably the greatest missionary of the 18th Century. If you had inquired of anyone who knew him as to the secret of his dedicated life, they would have told you that it was his total commitment to Christ.

Total commitment means surrendering all of one’s life to God and his purposes. This call of God came to E. Stanley Jones one day during his personal devotions. A voice seemed to ask, “Will you give me your all?” E. Stanley Jones replied without hesitation or reservation, “Yes, Lord.”

Shortly after that there followed the conviction that the Christian ministry was to be his life work. Then during his college career as he prepared for the ministry, the Voice spoke to him again, “I want you to go across the seas. Will you go?” He assented at once.

There was no struggle involved for him. But it was a different matter for his mother. She was greatly upset when she learned that her son was going to be “a poor Methodist preacher.” But the news that he was going to the heart of Africa crushed her.

By her letters he could tell that she was pining away. Then he received a telegram from his doctor brother saying: “Come home, mother is dying. As the train carried him home, he tried to come to a decision. What would it be—God’s will for his life, or what his mother wanted?

When he reached home his mother was barely alive. “No one knows why she is dying,” his brother told him, “she just seems to have no will to live.” But E. Stanley Jones knew why.

He said later, “It was the hardest decision of my entire life, but I made it. I said to God, “I love my mother more than I love life itself, but I am committed to your will no matter what the cost.”

To his and everyone’s amazement from the moment he made the decision his mother began to improve. She not only consented to his becoming a missionary, but his calling became the pride and joy of her life.

There is an old hymn of consecration that closes with these words:

“All to Jesus I surrender, Lord,

I give myself to Thee;

Fill me with Thy love and power,

Let Thy blessings fall on me.”

May you and I do just that for Him, so He can do just that for us.

Clyde Nichols is a retired minister, having served First Christian Church in Temple for 27 years as senior minister. He is the author of three books of devotionals and writes a religious column for several Texas newspapers, including The Reporter.