Surrendering Our Margins

 In the last chapter, we defined meekness. In this chapter we will look at surrendering the things that get in the way of the Lord's meek nature. The Holy Spirit within you will strive to make you meek, but it does require you to think intentionally about the areas of your life where you have power that may need to be controlled. Remember, true biblical meekness is not just control, it is power under control. See the previous chapter for more details. This character trait of the Lord does not have a true opposite, more precisely, it has many potential opposites, Aggression could be a potential opposite if you are a muscle bound bodybuilder and someone irritates you so much that you feel like punching them in the head. You control yourself because you really truly believe that it would be wrong to give them a concussion with your power. That would be meekness, the opposite of that meekness in this instance would be unbridled aggression. In this case, the bodybuilder as a born again believer would surrender this aggression by embracing the Lord's nature of meekness through the Holy Spirit, over time, he would become a gentle, kind, and caring man with incredible physical power to defend the weak, and work hard on their behalf. That is a niche example though. This chapter is called "Surrendering Our Margins". Why? Because margins are those spaces in between what we are doing and what we could do. If a recreational runner does a 5k in 30 minutes for her morning workout, but could do it in 25 minutes, that 5 minute space between the 25 and the 30 is her margin. The reason to leave that margin in this case would probably have to do with staying rested up for something bigger and more important later that she might need that leg strength for. Such as a job that requires her to be on her feet all day. So, it's her power, i.e. her speed, that gave her the ability to have a margin. The decision to have a 5 minute margin was control, so with a combination of power (speed) and control (having a 5 minute margin), she demonstrated biblical meekness in her exercise. In a successful business, there is an element of meekness at work, because there is a margin after expenses, and that margin is called net profit. (The little green sliver in the pie chart.) So, we want to look at letting the Lord have our margins and advising us on what to do with those margins. We all have power in different areas, physically, emotionally, and mentally, so I hope that you will be able to see your own life through this and allow the Lord to shine on the areas in your life that have un-surrendered margins. 

 Most of you reading this are in a western country and hold a job, if you are in that category, then this means that you probably have a certain power with a certain level of margin in it. Because this is a power almost all of us share, this is the power I want to really focus on for the rest of this chapter. What is that power? It is the power of money, wealth, or to put it better, financial resources, the power to shove so many green papers at a problem that people address that problem for you. The power to walk into a store with a credit card, and leave the store with all the items you went in for. Well, the Lord said, the meek will inherit the earth, so, what does that mean? It actually means what it says. Now, I am not giving a prosperity gospel message here. I am not giving a dogmatic lecture about the do's and don'ts of debt, money, investing, and credit cards, for that, see Dave Ramsey. I am wanting to look at surrendering margins to the Lord, very specifically. If the margins in your finances are surrendered to the Lord then, you will be blessed by the Lord. How will your blessing look? I don't know. Will you be wealthy? Maybe. Will you be poor? Maybe. Will the Lord bless you for surrendering the margin to Him? Yes. How? I don't know. The point is, the Lord is right, always, no matter what, will the meek inherit the earth? Yes. How? I don't know. When you surrender all your margins to the Lord, does that make a you a "blessed meek person" who will inherit your share of the earth? Yes! When you try to make yourself meek, are you? No! The Lord is the source of true meekness, so as humans, not going to the source, we can only manifest meek tendencies in certain times and ways. What does inheriting your share of the earth look like for you specifically? I don't know.... This thing of not knowing the answer to all these questions on my part might be frustrating, but I want to make a strong point right here and now, write in granite, and remember it. DO NOT DO SOMETHING FOR THE LORD'S BLESSING!! Do it for the Lord, for He is right. By doing, we mean, surrendering, and renewing. Remember, you alone, by yourself cannot be meek, you can merely act meek, sometimes. 

 Ok, so let's be "sort of" practical, Fredrick Trabajador works hard. He has a job that pays him $5000 per month. The Lord gave him this job. The Lord is providing for him with this job. Fred attends church and calls himself a Christian but he never gives to much thought to it. He wonders why he has to work so hard. He decides to buy a new car, a Toyota would be fine, but a BMW would be nicer, it costs $100'000. Fred's credit is good, so he signs the payment paperwork. He decides to buy a larger home with a lot of acreage, a real midwestern ranch. It's $1'000'000. His credit is good, and his banker likes him. They make a deal. A friend shows him a movie from the last Bassmasters at his local lake, their boats, so shiny, so fast, so cool. They cost $80'000. Fred's credit is good, and you know the rest. Fred decides his old 2010 truck looks out of place in front of that boat. He sees that Ford makes a Limited version of their F150, and its chock full of the latest and greatest technology, the interior is almost as nice as his BMW. Its a $90'000 truck, but, Fred's credit is good... 

 In the same town, there is a man named Billson Saktmod. He has a job that pays him $4000 per month. He sees this job as a gift from the Lord. The Lord is his passion, and who he lives for, he likes to consider himself a son, and a disciple of the Lord. He knows that the Lord has put him in the middle of a hurting word, in this specific time and way, so he seeks the Lord on who he is, and what his calling is. He prays about his finances, and decides the Lord would have him diffuse it in several categories. His church is doing well at community outreach and Kingdom work, he trusts them with money, so he commits to giving them 10% a month as a tithe. Then he establishes a giving fund for general acts of generosity, and puts about 5% of his income in there. He sets back 10% in a savings for emergencies, and big purchases. He sets aside 25% of his income every month into investments, and then sees that 50% is left, and after praying with his wife, he realizes that in this small town if they are frugal, they can easily live on the $2000 per month, especially with the savings fund on standby for big items. Bill is thoughtful and calculating, and yes, even prayerful with every purchase he makes. He drives nice vehicles, has a nice medium sized home, and has a little debt, but he never did anything without feeling peace from the Lord about the matter. The years go by, and Bill finds himself with enough investments to live on, he thinks back to his childhood, how his father died in a horrible accident when he was 2, and his grandpa fathered him, showed him the Lord's ways, and played that key role of father in his life. He thinks of all the fatherless boys out there and his heart aches. 

 The economy crashes, unemployment sky rockets. Billson no longer has a job with all his investments, so he spends his time raising funds and giving money to those who are impacted by this crisis. One day at the bank he is told that they had repoed a very nice boat, a lightly used ford truck, and a million dollar ranch. He sees a vision of this ranch being filled with boys, and men who are worthy father figures to them, he prays, and dips into saving, investing, and giving funds to make a down payment and buys it all from the bank for half of what it would normally be worth, and sets it up on a very low payment plan with the goal towards making it self sustaining with proceeds from donations and crops. He remembers how much he loved when his grandpa took him fishing, and decides to take the boat and then he also takes the truck as well for a full time ranch vehicle for the manager to use for all the ranch needs. Now he needs the Lord to just show him the right manager....

 10 years later, the boys' ranch is a huge success, and Bill has a very competent manager. For when he left the bank that day 10 years ago, he met another man, in tears, pacing, and so Bill stopped and spoke with him. This man was desperate, he had lost his job, and with no cash flow, and no reserves in money (margins) he had lost everything. Bill prayed with him, and the man committed himself to the Lord as a disciple, and not just a Christian. The men met weekly for a time, Bill made sure his needs were met, and so it was, that Bill hired a truly humble and broken man who had given up on doing things by himself, and was therefore qualified for the position. Also, he was familiar with everything about the ranch, boat, and truck, for, this stuff used to all be "his." He was Fredrick Trabajador. 

 So, I hope this story is an extreme, but I do wish to highlight a few things here. Billson gave his margins to the Lord. Fredrick never paid attention to his margins and therefore used them all on the things he wanted. Those things, the earth as it were, ended up in Billson's possession. Did Billson "inherit the earth"? Yes. Is that how your inheritance will look? I have no idea. Does it matter how it looks? No, for taking on the Lord's meekness and surrendering our margins is blessing enough, for, again, and always forevermore, the LORD'S WAYS ARE RIGHT!! Are you willing to sit down and talk with the Lord about your margins, ALL your margins? Are you even willing to let the Lord show you margins that your ignoring or don't even know about? Then, are you willing to surrender all, ALL of those margins to the Lord, who gave them to you in the first place? I hope that you do not take a blueprint out of this, the Lord showed Bill that he had a 50% margin in his finances, and Bill leveraged that for the Lord, because the Holy Spirit had been given the job of managing them. Perhaps the Lord would show you that you only have a 5% margin. If your someone who is truly meek, know the Lord's promises are kept, but your "inheritance of the earth" may happen in the span of eternity, like Abraham's promise about a great nation from his generations, when it came true at that time Moses and Israel marched out of Egypt, Abraham was living in eternity. So, the example I used about Billson, and his inheritance from the Lord, was used because it is a physical and present example that I can understand this side of eternity. Do I expect my inheritance to look like that because I am working on surrendering my own margins? No, not really, but I am not looking at my inheritance, rather, I'm trying not to, I want to put on the Lord's meekness, and trust Him with what happens afterwards. Be truly meek by simply allowing the Holy Spirit to manage all the margins in your life, and you will find yourself being truly meek in the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

This has been chapter 7 of Surrender!? To Who? 

This same basic message can be found here in video form by the author.