"What is most important to you? What consumes your thought patterns? How close are your thoughts to My Word? If you are wondering why you have no peace or confidence in Me, why don't you examine your motives for doing what you do? If you are full of unforgiveness, anger, self-serving agendas, or self focused direction, how can I be there with you?
 
       "You are not listening to the heart of My Word. I cannot go where you choose to live with your heart. I will never go anywhere that denies My Word. Why do you stay there and wonder why I am not fulfilling your requests? Get your heart in line with My Word. Repent of any area of your life that is out of line. Move to Me. I am where I always am, watching over My Word to perform it."
 
Joshua 24:15 NIV
 
"But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
 
2 Chr. 7:14 NIV
 
"...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin..."
 
2 Chr. 16:9 NIV
 
"For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him..."
 
James 4:10 AMP
 
Humble yourselves [feeling very insignificant] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up and make your lives significant].
 
Rev. 3:19 AMP
 
Those whom I [dearly and tenderly] love, I tell their faults and convict and convince and reprove and chasten [I discipline and instruct them]. So be enthusiastic and in earnest and burning with zeal and repent [changing your mind and attitude].
 
 
If we attempt to hold on to our lives, striving to maintain any semblance of control over them, we will lose their real value. If we voluntarily lose our lives, willingly taking the posture of Jesus by giving everything away to God, we gain more than we could ever believe possible. When we choose to make these fleeting moments in time that we call our lifetime all about the glory of the Lord, He shows us that He has far more for us than if we had been concerned only for ourselves.
 
It works like this: If we really do give everything away, He draws so close to us that our nature is superseded by His nature; and consequently, we care less and less about our own needs the more we come to Him. (Supersede - to force out of use as inferior, to take the place, room, or position of.) Our surrender causes the Lord to develop in us the character of Christ - a nature that is deeply in love with the Father and wanting only His desires - in place of our selfish, carnal character. The freedom achieved through our submission is the really good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God lovingly brings us out of the horrors of our fleshly nature. He places His life in us when we come to Jesus; then He adds and adds Himself each time we surrender.
 
Take my life and conform it to Your Word, Lord,
 
Jim Corbett