Like a Pen in a Hand

“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” — 1 Corinthians 6:19 (KJV)

Why would God ask for everything? Isn’t that a lot? Murray’s answer starts with who God is. He is “the Fountain of life, the only Source of existence and power and goodness.” Everything good comes from him.

Then Murray points to nature. The sun, the moon, the stars, the flowers and the grass: “are they not all absolutely surrendered to God?” A lily doesn’t argue with God about how to grow. It just lets him make it beautiful. Murray asks: if God works that way in flowers, can he really do his best work in his children if only half of them is given to him?

He uses a simple, everyday picture:

“I have a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely surrendered to the one work of writing, and that pen must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am to write properly with it. If another holds it partly, I cannot write properly.”

Picture trying to write with someone else gripping the same pen and pulling it in a different direction. The writing would be a mess. That, Murray says, is what happens when we give God part of our lives but keep a firm grip on the rest. He can’t write the story he wants to write.

Think honestly about your own life. Most of us are happy to give God some areas: church, prayer before meals, being generally nice. But we keep hold of others: our phone, our friendships, our plans for the future, a habit we don’t want to give up, how we spend our money or our weekends.

Murray isn’t saying God wants to take away everything good. The pen doesn’t lose anything by being held by the writer; that is when it finally does what it was made for. He says it is the “one lack of absolute surrender” that “hinders God,” who “delights to communicate Himself to every child who is prepared to receive Him.” God wants to give, not grab.

Paul says your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and you are not your own. That is not a threat. It is an invitation to let the one who made you do what he made you for.

One thing to do this week: make a quick list of the main areas of your life: school, friends, family, phone, money, future plans, free time. Put a tick by the ones you have honestly given to God and a question mark by the ones you are still gripping. Pick one question mark and talk to God about it.