Scripture reading: Genesis 22:1–19

My All for His All

No good thing does he withhold from those
who walk uprightly. (Psalm 84:11)

E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was one of the great missionary-evangelists and devotional writers of the twentieth century. His ministry touched thousands of people in India, America, and around the world as he preached a Gospel of victory through surrender. In his book The Way to Power and Poise he tells of a crisis moment in his own life when he began to discover that there was more to the Christian faith than he had yet experienced.

I found myself about a year after my conversion a very divided person. The conscious mind had been converted—radically and gloriously. But the subconscious mind had not been. There the driving instincts of self, sex, and the herd still reigned, driving for their own completion and satisfaction . . . I was a house divided against myself. . . . I was like the ship on which Paul was shipwrecked—it was caught at the place “where two seas met” and was
battered by the conflicting currents (Acts 27:41). I was puzzled: Was this the best that Christianity could do—leave you divided against yourself?

In agony of soul and through searching the Scriptures, he finally came to a place of full surrender and deeper faith, where he began to discover the victorious life that is the birthright of every child of God.

I dropped upon my knees and said, “Now Lord, what shall I do?” Very quietly the Voice said: “Will you give me your all? All you know, and all you don’t know?” I replied, as simply as a child: “Yes, Lord, I do.” Then the Voice: “Then take my ALL.” I rose from my knees saying, “I do.” The pact was verbally sealed on both sides: my all, His All. It was sealed by faith. I walked around the room asserting that faith; and after about ten minutes in which I was literally pushing away doubt, the faith turned to fact and the fact to feeling. I was filled—filled to my depths, and to my fingertips, and to the roots of my hair; I was filled with the Spirit. It was all very quiet—just the silent tears of joy rolling down my cheeks. But waves of refining Fire seemed to sweep my being, cleansing, uniting. The Holy Spirit had moved into the center of my being . . .

Perhaps today you have the same question that E. Stanley Jones had: Is this the best that Christianity can do? You have prayed for grace and experienced forgiveness but you find that on the inside you are still a very divided person. Is this all there is to salvation? Is there no work of grace that can heal the brokenness of my inner dysfunction and division?

Let Jones’ testimony be an encouragement to you today to humbly and simply do what he did: surrender! Victory in this battle comes only when we raise the white flag and give God complete mastery over our lives—everything! As we surrender he then has freedom to come and fill us with his sanctifying Spirit. My all for his all. It just doesn’t get any simpler than that! Or more glorious!

Say “no” to self; “yes” to Jesus every time.
—William Borden

point to ponder • Are you experiencing all that Jesus died on a cross to make possible?

prayer focus • The one who needs to cease striving and surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.