Today is the day of Resurrection, according to the Christian tradition. I’m spending my early morning hours listening to worship music. Last summer, Shane & Shane released an album of Christian classics appropriately titled “Vintage” and the song “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” is playing. I find myself humming along while Googling Rich Mullins. I found a quote of his in which he says that “the hardest thing for a Christian to do is surrender.” And with the words “I could sing of Your love forever” echoing in my ears, this question springs to the forefront of my mind:
Could you surrender to God and truly, with your whole heart, say “I could sing of your love forever” the moment after you sin, when surrendering to God is the hardest? When you’d rather hide and run than “come boldly to the throne of grace”?
Maybe that’s just my issue and you don’t struggle with that. Maybe you run straight to God after repenting and it doesn’t take you hours or days to come to Him like it does for me. Good on you. I’m not there yet.
Letting the Lyrics Settle In
Considering what day it is, and coupled with Rich Mullins’ quote, it’s easy to see why he would come to the conclusion that surrendering is hard. All of us would run from the cross. We don’t have it in us to surrender, much less love God. I think that’s what the songwriter is getting at. He gleefully declares “I could sing of your love forever” because he knows that it’s only by the love of God and the demonstration of His power by rising from the dead that he has any chance of redemption, lasting love, or everlasting hope.
The hardest thing for a Christian to do is surrender.
Rich Mullins
A Change of Heart
Rich Mullins is right. It’s hard to surrender to God. I have spent much of my relationship with God reacting out of fear and condemnation despite what the Bible says about my status as a child of God.
Romans 8:1 says this: “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus.” This is possible not just because of Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross—as that’s only half of the equation—but because He rose from the dead, proving that He alone is God and has power over all, even death itself. When I contemplate that, I am not afraid of punishment, nor do I feel ostracized or condemned. I can rest in my Savior’s power over death and immense love for me. I can gladly join in with the songwriter and sing “I could sing of Your love forever!”
Musings of a Wanderer 
To properly confess sins, a person needs contrition. There are two types of contrition and God accepts both forms, but one type is better than the other. There is imperfect contrition, which means a person confesses their sins because they fear the loss of eternal life and going to hell; and there is perfect contrition, which means a person confesses their sins because they love God so much and do not want to pain Jesus for staying outside His grace of Divine Mercy.
Recently, a 72-year old woman contacted me and told me that she had been reading my blog for over three months and it literally turned her life around. The woman had committed a secret abortion and had not gone to Confession for over 48-years. She thought that committing such a sin (murder) placed herself outside of God’s Divine Mercy and He would never forgive her. But, she read the daily heavenly messages and especially, my blog page for mothers of aborted children, and she discovered for the first time that her sin was forgiveable by God. She has since been reconciled back with the Church and has completely changed her life, embracing God and His Divine Love especially meant for her.
https://maryrefugeofsouls.com/invitation-to-become-a-child-of-mary/marys-words-of-advice-messages/our-lady-mary-speaks-to-the-mother-of-an-aborted-child/
This past Lent, I have been reading a lot of private revelation about Judas Iscariot given to different saints during the centuries. There is so much I could reflect about him, but one of the most important is that he could not bring himself to say “I’m sorry” to Jesus. People do not realize this, but when people do not confess their sins, in essence, the person is saying to Jesus at the Cross, Lord, Your Crucifixion was not enough to ransom me back from the devil, You did not suffer enough to save me from hell.
That was the crime of Judas — he preferred damnation instead of allowing God to love him and to be Merciful towards him. Judas did not think that he was lovable by God.
One of the best mystical revelations about the Crucifixion is this online book: https://www.jesus-passion.com/DOLOROUS_PASSION_OF_OUR_LORD_JESUS_CHRIST.htm There are others that I can recommend as well.
God bless and have a blessed Easter.
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