Steadfast Surrender

James 1:3

“For the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.”

One of the most important lessons I've learned in college is this: people change, change is inevitable, and some things just won't last forever. And it's really crazy weird!! Because for so long I imagined being friends with some people for forever. You really never imagine how much the people and things in your life can change even in just short periods of time. When people told me life would happen otherwise, I always believed they may be right but that I could still hang on to some of the things I had. But reality is you can't hang on. You can't really hang on to anything because people, places, things, and circumstances are always changing. It’s true for everyone, and although change can definitely be a good thing, there are times when it isn't. Or there are times when something changes so much that it's not at all what it once was or how it should be.

Changes in life are inevitable, but one thing should remain steadfast: your faith.

When I read this verse yesterday, "For the testing of your faith produces steadfastness," (James 1:3), change is the first thing I thought about.

The definition of steadfast is to be firm or unwavering. Some other synonyms are constant, reliable, committed, relentless, unchanging, and uncompromising.

Is your faith constant? When you're in the midst of the storm are you just as committed to God as when the waves are at rest and the boat is still? Lastly, is your faith uncompromising?

Why is it that we try to make compromises with God? Compromising is one of those things you learn to do when your little and your fighting with your sibling about who gets to play with that cool toy and for how long. You learn that it's a good thing, it's what we should do, right? Just like change, of course compromising can be good. And there's a time and place for both change and compromise. But our relationship with Christ is not that time or place for us to constantly be changing, swaying, and compromising. You can't tell God ‘well I'll do what I want this weekend, but I promise come Sunday morning I'm all yours again.’ Some people subconsciously do this, but I think most people know exactly what they're doing. We rely on the fact that God is unchanging to give us room to sway and go back and forth between relentlessly pursuing him and making compromises. And, on top of compromising with God, we listen to the world and other people. One person tells you to live this way, and another person says the other. And you're constantly torn between who you should listen to and what's right. But isn't God bigger than all of that?

How long are you going to let yourself be tossed back and forth by the waves?

Growing up in a Christian school, going to church every week, and then going to a Christian college I see people all the time who know exactly what God's truth is and how they should be living their lives, but then they start making compromises. Making compromises is the easy way.

I start making compromises and thinking things like, "God, if I make it through this busy week then I'll pray more and I'll read my Bible more." Or "God, if you just give me what (I think) I need, then I'll trust that you really do provide." The list goes on and on. Here’s the thing:

God isn't someone we should be making deals with, He's someone we should be steadfastly surrendering to.

If you think that you're getting something out of compromising with God, you're not. But if you surrender to God and stand firm in the midst of a world tossing you around in every direction, something is going to change for good inside of you.

Let the trials in life produce steadfast faith. Don't compromise. And, surrender your life entirely to God so you can become 'complete’ through him.

"Let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4).