“Just surrender it all to God.” This statement sounds so simple. It sounds so easy. Statements like this are sometimes easier said than done. Or they are easier said than understood and applied to life. The oversimplified phrases we hear and repeat may seem like vague church lingo but they help remind us of valuable truths when understood and implemented. The key is understanding what it really means. That takes digging a little deeper and opening our hearts and minds to the principle of what is being said.
Today I am digging deeper into surrender. Surrender is key to our spiritual progress and growth. True surrender brings great peace and rest. That is if your surrender is into God’s arms and will. Surrender can feel like a battle. It’s leaning into Christ which brings the victory in life no matter what the challenge is you are facing. It is a conscious choice to seek God, hear God’s voice and then obey. It’s a letting go of thinking you can control things into the hands of the ONE who is really in control. So the first thing we have to do to surrender is present ourselves to God and be willing to learn from Him. We can choose to willingly follow Jesus Christ and what He taught.
Surrender is a daily dying to self will to walk a life out given to the Lord Jesus Christ like it says in Luke 9:23-24.
As we daily follow Jesus it brings its challenges in this fallen world but it also brings provision and contentment the world cannot bring. We have hope and joy and peace and victory because of the Holy Spirit in our lives as He teaches us and guides our steps with the Savior’s.
Here are suggestions to “lean in” and surrender daily in this process of the Christian life.
Read the scriptures
Seek truth instead of your feelings leading you
join others in worship
be open & vulnerable to those who can help you through Godly counsel & prayer
Surrender is a day by day journey with God. It is a continual choice and process. We all are works in progress. You can do all things through Christ (Philippians 4:13). Trust God’s goodness and love and goodwill towards you. Surrender is staying humble (1Peter 5:6). Surrender is a heart that says to God “Not my will but Yours Heavenly Father” like Jesus did. (Mark 14:34-35). Surrender is living in daily relationship with Jesus and letting Holy Spirit flow through you. (John 15:1-7).
Here are some verses to encourage you as you surrender again to God and the truth of His goodness.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.
TRUST His plans
Psalms 23:6 NKJV Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.
Psalms 34:8 NKJV Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. 15For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. 28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. God’s Everlasting Love 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
I love the way the Message Bible says to surrender in Romans 12:1-2
Place Your Life Before God
Romans 12:1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Surrendering to God is a lifetime process of loving God’s way of doing things, yielding to His ways as we learn and trusting Him every step of the way!