Surrendered EvangelismSample

Lay Yourself Bare

The Voice renders today’s reading this way: “Lay yourself bare, facedown to the ground, in humility before the Lord; and He will lift your head so you can stand tall.”

The Amplified Bible has it like this: “Humble yourselves [with an attitude of repentance and insignificance] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up, He will give you purpose].”

While this verse is not typically applied to evangelism, it makes for a clear invitation. There is a command and a promise. 

Command: Humble yourself in the Lord’s presence.

Promise: He will exalt you.

What a mystery! The command ‘humble yourself’ implies that you need to humble yourself. That means you aren’t currently ‘meek, deferential, respectful, submissive’ in His presence. And yet, when you obey the command, and lower yourself, He’ll exalt you! The difference? The Lord is the One building you up–you aren’t the one building yourself up. Jesus explains this point in Luke 17:33 (TPT): “All who are obsessed with being secure in life will lose it all—including their lives. But those who let go of their lives and surrender them to Me will discover true life.”

You cannot be in the Lord’s presence while building yourself up. Jesus seems even to be asserting that you will lose your life if you persist in trying. Conversely, surrender to Jesus and you can ‘discover true life’.

How might this approach look in evangelism? We’re not looking to insult people. So if we reverse-engineer the process, we can get to the command without unnecessary offence. Our conversation can start with the end goal to ‘discover true life’. Even in the philosophical, café-cultural vocabulary of the day, many will be interested to ‘discover true life’ (most are very interested in exalting themselves, too, but that might be a little too politically incorrect for more casual conversation). We point out that Jesus explains that obsession with security in life won’t work. In fact, it results in the opposite result – losing your life. So, how do we get there? According to Jesus, ‘surrender… to Me’.