Surrender

 

Webster's 1828 dictionary defines surrender as:

To yield: to give up

 one's self into the power of another.     

God's Word says we are to:

...yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. Romans 6:13b  

  


    I am learning that growing in the Lord is a surrendering process. Laying down my will and ways and embracing life as God gives it. Though I do desire to live in surrender to the Lord. When life doesn't go according to my plans, I find that I fight for control. As if I know best.  I question... Why Lord? Why these circumstances? Why now? Or why not now? But He calls me and you to trust in Him.To not lean on our own understanding. To not always know why. To walk by faith and NOT by sight! Is this easy? No! I like having a plan and knowing what to expect. But all that is, is a false security. Why do I fight for false control, when I can have true strength & security in the Lord through surrender?  
   
     As I flip through my journal I see it. See the call to surrender. See that God has been trying to tell me the message of letting go for months. But I have been so stubborn. So tough to break. Though I wrote it down with pen on page, my heart didn't read it... Trust. Complete abandon of me and rest in the Lord. No matter the wait of time or the weight of burden... lay it all down. God can carry it all! God can carry me! 
    
   The call to surrender, is a call to deeper living... To come to the end of Me and My plans, hopes and dreams... Calling me to run into the heart of God. To give Him complete control and in simple faith to trust Him. Not knowing what's next... The thrill of this calling rings this song in me: What about living a life where God would get all the glory! Because it would be a life not lived in my own strength. Or by my own invention. What about dreams that will keep me on my knees in prayer?  Why do I only want easy and what I can understand? Why not hard? Why not faith stretching?
  

   A life surrendered to the Lord gives spiritual life! And is not surrender to the Lord the very essence of what it is to be a Christian? Coming to the end of ones self {...for without me (Jesus) ye can do nothing. John15:5b.} and living in the strength of the Lord! {I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13}

   

Submit yourselves therefore to God. (James 4:7a)