The Difference is Faith

"Do not go gentle into that good night.  Old age should burn and rave at close of day; rage, rage against the dying of the light."  Dylan Thomas

"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."  The Apostle Paul

What a difference faith can make!

John 15

Submit to the sharp edge of the Pruner's knife and do not draw back.  He has trusted you to bear fruit!

Cheerful Surrender

There is the surrender of defeat; the result of being overwhelmed by superior force and giving up, losing.  There is no pleasure in such surrender, only hopelessness, fear and the depressing sense of failure and loss.
These are not the characteristics of surrender to the will of God.  He is not an enemy or adversary who seeks to overpower but a divine Father who loves unconditionally.  The surrender of one's life and will to Him can and should be approached cheerfully, joyfully with great hopeful expectation.
Cheerful surrender, joyful surrender; not born out of having been beaten into submission but out of having been awakened by the Creator himself to the very real possibility of a victorious life.
We can submit our will and life to Him joyfully with the confidence that He will exchange strength for our weariness, abundance for our scarcity, forgiveness for our guilt, success for our failure, courage for our fear, assurance for our doubt and gladness for our unhappiness.