First of all Write a Letter to Jesus
(anything you ask by Colin Urquhart)
Make time to be quiet on your own. Have with you pen/pencil and sheet of paper. Pray a simple prayer! ie; "Please Lord Jesus, show me myself as I really am and all that needs to be given over to you."
Then begin to write down everything that comes to you.
Don't expect to hear audible voices from heaven;
God will use your mind to show you what needs to be given to Him.
My experience is that if you write this as a letter to Jesus which is more personal than a list of items.
Such a letter can begin like this for example;
Dear Jesus,
I am offering my life and this is what I'm giving to you now.
You will need to write down both the negative and the positive aspects of your life. I will list the kind of things that I mean, although when you write your letter it will not be in the order that's set out below.
You see God wants you to express what is in your heart.
A. The Negative things;
My Sins: Anything from the past that troubles you, things from childhood; your guilt and failure.
Don't try to think of every sin you have committed, you would need a book for that. The relevant things will come to mind.
My Fears Of people of particular situations, of death, of the future, even your fear of giving your life to God.
Don't try to psycho-analyse yourself, or impress the Lord with your knowledge of why you have such fears.
Simply write them down to be given to Him.
My Doubts Doubt is a spiritual disease, which you will never be able to resolve for yourself. Bring your doubts to Jesus that only He can deal with them. Be honest with Him for only He can transform your doubting into believing.
B. The Positive things;
Many people bring the negative things to the Cross, when they first become Christians. However, many have never made a detailed offering of the positive side of their lives.
Later we shall see how important this is
My Relationships; It is particularly important to give God any bitterness, resentment, or anger that you feel
towards anyone, even if you have held on to these feelings for years because of hurt done to you by someone or several people. This is not always easy. In giving yourself to God you are giving your feelings, the whole situation, with all the grief, sorrow, sadness and hurt that has resulted.
My Marriage: Possessiveness can destroy any relationship. Recognize that both wife or husband belong
to God. As couples have acknowledged God's ownership in their lives so the Lord has healed any deep
and hidden problems which could lead to tensions and negative manifestations which can destroy marriages.
My Children: Are His too. By handing over your children to God, shows Him that you are not being possessive and holding on to them for yourselves. This releases God to touch them to heal them, to love them and to fill them with his Spirit.
My Work: Take God to work with you and know His enabling presence in all that you do. He will help you
prosper and deal with your work colleagues.
My Time, Money and possessions: Every day is a fresh gift from God, a day in which He can be honoured and praised in our lives; so the way in which we use the time God gives us is important.
If Jesus has paid the price for you, then everything you are and everything that you have is rightly His -
even our money. He is concerned, not only with how much you put in the offering on Sunday, but how you use all the finances and material resources that are His and that He makes available to you. Even under the old covenant, Israel only prospered when the nation was faithful to God in material giving to Him.
If you are a Christian already it is important to give all:
My relationship with God: Your time for prayer, worship and studying the Word of God.
My life in the Body of Christ: If you belong to Jesus, you are part of His Body. He doesn't ask us to be "independent" Christians, but "members one of another", sharing His life together. And remember, that church to which you belong is not yours to be run in your way. It is to become what God wants. So give it to Him. And give yourself to be used by Him to build up that Body in love and faith.
It will be obvious that the negative and positive sections are not exclusive. For example,
in offering your time to God, you may become aware of ways in which you have been misusing it. That misuse will need God's forgiveness. God is concerned that what you write comes from your heart; He is not interested in the neat way in which it is set out. Why write these thing down?
For three reasons.
FIRST: you will see clearly what you need to give to God, bad and good, in a way that is not possible by simply thinking about yourself.
SECOND: you will see yourself as you really are that may not be very comfortable,
for you may never before have been confronted with an overall picture of the awful truth about yourself.
THIRD: You will realize that the giving of yourself to God is not only something that you aught to do, or that He is wanting you to do. Only He can accept you with all your mess (the sin, the failure, the doubts, and fears) and then transform you into someone filled with His love, His life and Joy and peace,
someone able to have his needs met, his body, soul and spirit healed, and his prayers answered.