The word “surrender” can be a scary one.
It implies laying down our desires and our dreams, for something that is unknown. Surrender means that we submit everything to God with hands wide open. The problem is that we have a tendency of closing our fingers around those desires and dreams again into tightened fists. We say to ourselves, God is not willing to help or He’s not moving according to my timetable, and we feel the urge to take control.
There is a song by Jesus Culture, I Surrender, which chorus goes:
All to You,
I surrender.
Everything,
Every part of me.
The lyrics of this song are so beautiful. They have been a prayer, a worship song in times of doubt, and a cry of my heart. In surrender, there is beauty, brokenness, and wholeness all at the same time. Yet…
What makes us reluctant to be fully surrendered to God?
We feel like our faith is too weak.
There have been so many times when I’ve told the Lord, “I believe, help my unbelief.” So many times I wanted to give up my hopes to His care, only to snatch them up again and keep them close to me. God has always been a perfect Gentleman about it, never demanding but still expecting my yielding.
That’s right. He wants us to willingly surrender because when we do, we’re open to receive what it is He has for us. It moves beyond our logic and reasoning and accepts His invitation to “Come…” like Peter did when He was invited by Jesus to walk on the waters. Where we are invited to go, God has made a way and provides Himself to get us there. We are never alone and don’t ever need to be afraid.
Faith needs to be exercised. It needs to be strengthened and that can only happen if we’re willing to use it and to know God is the only One who can help our unbelief.
We don’t know what the future holds.
Recently, I bought a house. My finances have been very strained these last two years and as a single woman living in New York City, I wondered how I would continue making ends meet. During a visit to Ohio to visit my mother who has been living there for more than a year, I fell in love with a Tudor-style cottage house close by. The price was amazing and with the help of my father and stepmother along with a small personal loan, I was able to buy it.
On the one hand it was exciting – my own house, which meant no worries about paying sky-high rent prices and more than one bedroom, which could become a home office for me as well as having an extra bedroom to adopt a child. That house became a place to hope for the future but a way to escape the terror of the present. How could I continue living paycheck to paycheck? Didn’t God see how I’ve been struggling? Doesn’t He want me to be happy? But in the back of my mind, I was struggling with the question, Am I really trusting God?
I felt like Naomi and her husband, Elimelech, in the book of Ruth who left Israel to go to Moab during a time of famine. It seemed wise for them to leave but had God told them to go? Did they trust God to provide for them? Was I trusting God to provide for me?
I’ve had to surrender my dreams for the future, accepting that when I gave my life to Him it was no longer my own. This has been a season of deepening trust in the Lord and believing (over and over again) in who He says He is – my Provider, my Protector, my Strength, my Hope and Trust.
While you may not be dealing with finances, maybe it’s waiting on God for a godly spouse. You’ve looked around your church only there doesn’t seem to be any potential candidates, so you’ve thought about moving to another church or town/city to give God a hand. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) and He is more than able to provide for any of your needs.
We don’t really trust and know who God is.
As Christians we quote this verse from Job many times, “The Lord gave, the Lord has take away, blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). We love when the Lord gives to us and are willing to bless His name then but what about when He takes away?
Our submission goes hand in hand with our trust in Him. Do you remember the trust-building game in junior high or high school where someone stood behind you while your hands were across your chest and you had to fall back, hoping they’d catch you? Sometimes, in the back of our minds, we’re still wondering if God is going to catch us. It’s not that He’s done anything to make us question Him but because there have been so many people in our lives who have hurt us, we project that mistrust onto Him.
Moses trusted in the Lord. He knew that having God’s presence with the people of Israel was essential to their survival. Because we have become more dependent on ourselves and the things around us, it can be extremely difficult to say as Moses did, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here” (Genesis 33:15).
Our trust in the Lord makes us distinct from other people. Andrew Murray, in his book, Absolute Surrender, mirrors Moses’s words:
“God has a plan for His Church upon earth. But alas! We too often make our plan, and we think that we know what ought to be done. We ask God first to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God go before us.”
We need God – all the time! We need to seek Him when we are making decisions. We need Him when we’re seeking spouses or jobs or anything that will affect our lives. We need to know the difference between “coming” and “departing”; God’s invitation to go with Him or when we’re choosing to leave Him behind.
Examine your heart. What are the areas that you’ve held on to and that God is asking you to surrender to Him? As the Holy Spirit helps you to identify them, pray a prayer of surrender. No matter how weak it may feel to you, God accepts it just as He accepts you.
Liv Migenes is a 30-something single daughter serving a gracious God. When she’s not blogging to encourage women in their singleness and their walk with God, she’s reading or watching way too much Netflix (preferably The Office or Arrow). Her dream is to become a published writer in the near future. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or her blog –livmigenes.blogspot.com.
Leave a Reply