Christian Actress Reflects on Surrender: ‘Discipleship Comes at a Cost’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Actress and author Priscilla Shirer recently explained what surrender in the Christian life really looks like.
“What I’ve noticed is that there are, thank the Lord, a lot of Christians, meaning they have accepted the free gift of salvation. But then there seems to be this line where it’s a much more narrow path because one is a free gift. Discipleship comes at a cost,” Shirer said on Christine Caine’s podcast. “It’s the surrender part that we’re not talking about very much. It’s the part where Jesus said in Luke 9, ‘Anybody who will come after me and be a disciple is going to deny themselves.’ They’re going to take up their cross, which means something has to die.”
Shirer explained that surrender means keeping God number one, no matter what.
“We have to be willing to loosen our grip on the things that we hold dear for the sake of making sure that nothing and no one is in first place over Him,” the author continued. “And most of the time…I don’t even recognize the things that have begun to take first place, until He asked me to let them go.”
READ MORE: CHRISTIAN ACTRESS SHARES MINDSET SHIFT TO KEEP GOD’S GLORY NO. 1
Shirer also touched on the topic while on Candace Cameron Bure’s podcast.
“It is a day-by-day [process],” she said of surrender. “Day by day, saying to Him, ‘Okay, Lord, I’m going to hand this back to you, and then I’m going to release it to you, and then I’m going to have to trust as to whether or not you’re going to give it back to me in the way that I’d like you to, or if you’re going to bring something full-circle in my life in an entirely different season that allows me, at least, to understand your choices for me, Lord.’”
She explained that anything that comes before God becomes an idol, and though Christians can try to justify it, it’s a sin.
“See a lot of times [as] Christians, we spend our time debating, ‘How close can I get to the line of sin without crossing the line for the disciple?’ That’s not even the question,” Shirer explained. “The question has nothing to do with proximity to sin. The question is, ‘How close can I get to Jesus?’ So anything that is not pressing me to Christ likeness, anything that is taking priority over Him, well, that thing is sin to me, even if it’s not sinful in and of itself. So as a disciple, just personally, I was like how fully am I actually surrendered to Jesus? Is He in first place, or has something else sort of pushed Him out of that primary position?”
She explores surrender more in depth in her recent book I Surrender All.
“What kind of Christian will you be? Shirer raises a clarion call to live in complete surrender and discipleship. Salvation is God’s gift — working out your faith comes at a high cost. Discover how your daily choice to lay down your life and follow him brings untold freedom, fulfillment, peace, and purpose!” a synopsis of the book reads.
READ MORE: CHRISTIAN ACTRESS TALKS SURRENDERING TO GOD ‘DAY BY DAY’
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