Surrendering has always been a big part of the, for lack of better term, “Christian walk.” We talk about it all the time, we encourage each other to do it, and, more often than not, we admit that we struggle with it. Giving up the right to ourselves is hard, and it goes against everything in our human nature, not to mention what everyone around us is saying.
“Take control of your life!”
“Make yourself your first priority.”
“Do what makes you happy.”
“Make a name for yourself!”
How many of these have you heard from people that you know? That last one is my favorite because every time I hear it I just think, “so I guess the whole ‘Tower of Babel’ thing was lost on you..?”
But anyway, we have a lot of pressure on us not to surrender, and I think it kind of infiltrates how we surrender, even when we are actively trying to. And I think that in order to fully give ourselves over to God, we need to take a look at this.
When you think of surrendering, what do you think of? Let me help you out; one thing I think of is Peter, getting out of the boat and walking on the waves toward Jesus, surrendering to Him and letting Him guide and protect him through the storm (until Peter took His eyes off Jesus anyway, but that’s not my point), or from an applicable viewpoint, us surrendering our circumstances to God when they get bad and letting Him lead us through. Another thing you may think of is surrendering to God your bad habits and sins, seeking forgiveness and accepting the repercussions, as long as you can get yourself right with God again (thinking of David after the Bathsheba incident here.”
So basically, we need to stop holding on to all of our bad habits, our fleshly desires, and any control we think we have over crazy stuff happening because God is the only one who can see us through, and this is necessary if we want to be true followers of Him, right?
Well, yes.
But wait, there’s more.
Many of us are willing to give up the bad things in our lives – our flaws, sins, scary or bad circumstances, fears, doubts, lusts – but how many of us are willing to give up the good things? Our talents, gifts, families, friends, spouses, when things are starting to look up, etc.? Because God doesn’t just want you to give him the bad, but He wants the good right along with it. Otherwise you’re not truly surrendering.
I think a lot of people recognize the bad things in their lives and see that they need God to help them work those things out, but they look at the good things and think that as long as it looks good to them, it must be God’s will, so they keep going however they see fit. But we need to remember that we are part of a whole here, and just because we perceive something as good, it doesn’t necessarily mean God sees it as good for us.
A lot of times we go after something that we think is good and beneficial for us without stopping to be still before God and listen for His guidance, because we think that if it is good, it must be God blessing us. But we don’t get to decide how God blesses us.
We need to surrender our idea of what it is to surrender. Until we are willing to completely give up our control of our lives, and our perceived purposes, and our time on this earth, then we are not willing to surrender ourselves to God.
Yes, you absolutely need to surrender your hard times, but also your good and joyful times. And you need to surrender your flaws, sins, and weaknesses, but also your talents, strengths, and good deeds. You need to turn every single part of you over to your God and King. Remember that God is the source of your joy, not anything that you can do or have or achieve. And you do not determine your purpose, but it was determined long before you came into existence, when you were simply a thought in the mind of your Creator.
If you are in control of what aspects of yourself you are surrendering, are you really surrendering?
What about you; do you need to surrender your way of surrendering?
