All To Jesus - Part 2

All to Jesus I surrender,

Humbly at His feet I bow;

Worldly pleasures all forsaken,

Take me, Jesus, take me now.

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. – Luke 14:33

Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all, and followed thee; what shall we have therefore? – Matthew 19:27

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Here in the second verse of this precious hymn, we are again reminded that Jesus must have our all. But the writer does something interesting. He speaks of humility. In earthly terms, being in the presence of someone of high status, or being in service to them, would give anyone a reason to boast. However, God calls us to be humble servants. If we are to boast of anything, Paul would admonish us in Galatians 6:14,

But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

When we surrender our lives to Jesus, we are surrendering our right to boast of our works. Humility goes a long way in God’s kingdom. It reminds us that we are absolutely nothing without Jesus, that our efforts are in vain if Christ is not the center of it.

When we are humbled at the feet of Jesus, it is only then that we can truly forsake, as the song says, all worldly pleasures. Christ Himself said in the Gospels that it is worthless to gain the whole world and lose your very soul in the process (Mark 8:36). It ought to be our very prayer as believers that the Church would drop materialism, to give up her pomp and circumstance, and set Christ on the pedestal that only He deserves.

The verse concludes with a plea: take my life, Lord. Take everything I have. Take all that I am. Mold me and make me into what You’d have me be. Paul admonishes us again in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; surrender is coming to the realization that our lives, our bodies, our minds belong to Jesus, beginning at the moment of salvation.

It would be wise to regularly look at the cross and remember that Christ forsook the riches and glory of Heaven to die a criminal’s death for us. He took the beatings, the stripes, the crown of thorns, the nails, the mockery all because of His love for us. How dare we refuse to give up a small portion of our lives for Him!