From Mine to Thine

Have you noticed that we’re living in a Me-culture and a Mine-age? A book by psychologist Jean M. Twenge entitled Generation Me has this fascinating subtitle:  Why Today’s Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled—and More Miserable Than Ever Before.

            The phenomenon is this: The more My-centered our lives, the more miserable we are.  The greatest shift occurs when we delete the “M” and replace it with a godly “Th.”  Moving from “mine” to “thine” is the greatest relocation we can ever experience. Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy will be done” (Matthew 6:10, KJV), and He provided the example when He prayed in Gethsemane, “nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42, KJV). If God is the Lord of the universe, shouldn’t He be the sovereign Lord of every area of life?  Why, then, do we insist on reverting back to “mine”?

A Military General Surrenders

            Not even the world’s leaders are exempt from the Lordship of Christ if they want to be truly useful and joyful. Major General Sir Richard Dannatt understands the valor of victory. He is one of the most decorated army officers in Great Britain. From 2006 to 2009 he served as Chief of the General Staff of the British Army. His greatest victory, however, was surrender. As a young man, Dannatt asked the Lord Jesus into his life, but for several years his level of devotion wavered. Circumstances kept pointing him to God, but he was resistant. When serving as a young soldier in Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1973, Dannatt was pinned down by a hail of bullets. His Corporal and his driver fell on either side of him.  “I walked away unharmed,” Dannatt said. 

            Two years later, he was on a mine clearing operation when his commander was blown up in front of his eyes. Dannatt walked away unharmed again. Two years later, Dannatt fell asleep while driving on the West German autobahn—he walked away unharmed again.

            On November 11, 1977, Dannatt suffered a massive stroke while alone in a cloakroom. He lay for nearly an hour before being found. During his convalescence, he thought a great deal about his life. In his book, Candles in the Darkness: Stories of Faith in the Army and Royal Air Force, Dannatt wrote: “On three occasions God has shown me His love and His protection and had challenged me to make a complete commitment to Him, but on each occasion, I had failed to make the response that He wanted from Me.  Finally I had to be stopped so that the lesson could be learned.”

            Major General Dannatt later wrote, “11^th November is the date in the calendar each year when we remember Armistice Day—for it was the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of November 1918 that the surrender of Germany to end the First World War was announced.  A surrender is two things—it is the end of the fighting and the beginning of peace.  I discovered that 11^th November 1977 was the moment that I stopped fighting God … it was the moment that I fully committed myself to Him.”^[1]

Wholly Consecrated to Him

            In Writing About Your Life, William Zinsser tells of being stationed in Algeria during World War II. A huge map covered the façade of the post office in Algiers, and France was painted entirely green. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Zinsser joined the crowds in the square to watch workmen painting white stretches along the Normandy coast. By August 21, the map was white all the way to the Seine…the whole of France was under Allied control, entirely white.[2]

            Can you see yourself in that picture?  Before Jesus invades our lives, our hearts are under enemy occupation; but on our own personal Decision-Day, we receive Him as our Savior and we’re justified!  A process of sanctification begins as our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors increasingly come under His control and we grow in the victorious Christian life.^[3]

            Is there anything you’re withholding from God? Learn to live the surrendered life and to say with our Lord Jesus Christ, “…nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

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Dr. Jeremiah is the founder of Turning Point for God, and serves as Senior Pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in El Cajon, California.

For more information about Turning Point, go to www.DavidJeremiah.org.