Surrendering To God
At seventy-five years old, I am just beginning to swim. Hallelujah! For many years now, I have taken swimming lessons one after another, with the same result—beginning again. I said to myself, forget it! However, after doing physical therapy for a long time in a pool, I decided to give it one more trial.
This time around, my swimming instructor’s approach has been quite different. She didn’t ask me to practice blowing bubbles under water or kicking but gave me this statement: “Don’t fight the water, because you cannot win, but surrender to it and it will carry you.” She taught me how to relax and then asked me to hold her hands and move along the stream while floating. I held her hands very tight because I feared that if I let go, I was going down. Thank God, I am no longer afraid of swimming.
While reflecting on her statement, I recalled the three words I heard in my spirit while praying to God about what to focus on (“humble,” “seek,” and “surrender”). I realized that my struggle with swimming was due to my inability to fully surrender to the water. Fear and panic set in, and I became tense and eventually went under.
I believe most of our struggles in our Christian life can be attributed to our unwillingness to totally surrender to God. When trials or problems arise, we panic, which can cause us to yield to the flesh or Satan. God requires absolute surrender from us. The Bible says, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God” (Romans 6:13). This is a call for absolute surrender.
What Is Surrender?
Surrender is a battle term. It implies giving up all rights to the conqueror. When an opposing army surrenders, they lay down their arms, and the winners take control from then on. In 1 Kings chapter 20, the king of Syria, Ben-Hadad, accompanied by thirty-two kings with their horses and chariots, besieged Samaria. He sent a message to the king of Israel, Ahab: “Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are mine.” Ahab replied, “My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I have are yours.” That is total surrender. Surrendering to God means nothing is held back—all I have is yours, oh God!
Our desired goal as Christians must be to surrender as the Apostle Paul describes in Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” This is the kind of surrender that is pleasing to God.
When we surrender all to God, we set aside our own plans and willingly seek His. And the good news is that God’s plan for us is always in our best interest. God said in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you … plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Why Do We Struggle with Absolute Surrender to God?
It is a lack of trust. For example, God said in Malachi 3:10, “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and try Me now in this … if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.” But instead of trusting God to do what He said He will, some of us say giving out ten percent of my income will mesh up my budget. But God said, “Try Me!” God knows how to bless the remaining ninety percent in an unimaginable way to meet your needs. Hear what the Bible says in Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
The Apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 how the churches of Macedonia were able to give generously despite their poverty: “They first gave themselves to the Lord.” That is, they totally surrendered themselves to God— “all I have is yours, Lord.”
Andrew Murray used a pen to illustrate absolute surrender. He said, “If I am to write properly, the pen must totally surrender to my hand. If another person holds it partly, I cannot write properly.” If we do not fully surrender to God’s hand, we will be limiting Him from doing all He wants to do in our lives. You say how? Hear what God said in Psalm 78:41: “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.” The more areas of our lives we surrender to God, the more we can be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
God Is Always Ready to Help Us Surrender
Are there any areas of your life you are unwilling to totally surrender unto God? God is always ready to help us. Remember, you can’t do it with your own strength. He knows all our imperfections. We need to diligently seek Him until our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God Himself will come in to turn out what is wrong. He will conquer what is evil, and work what is pleasing in His blessed sight. The Bible says, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13). How did Abraham, the father of faith and the friend of God, have such faith, obedience, and devotion to God? He believed God, and God helped him. Now we have the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us; He is our teacher and helper.
God Blesses Our Surrender
The condition for obtaining God’s full blessing is total surrender to Him. A fully surrendered heart is teachable, and God promised to instruct and watch over us. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Psalm 32:8). He equally promised to carry us throughout our lives. Hear His good words to us in the book of Isaiah: “I’ve been carrying you on my back from the day you were born, And I’ll keep on carrying you when you’re old. I’ll be there, bearing you when you’re old and gray. I’ve done it and will keep on doing it, carrying you on my back, saving you” (Isaiah 46:4 MSG).
Below are the first two stanzas of “I Surrender All” by Judson W. Van DeVenter published in 1896:
1 All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.
2 All to Jesus I surrender,
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel Thy Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.
Refrain:
I surrender all, I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.
I pray that we will all trust and give ourselves fully to Jesus so that He can fill us with love and power of the Holy Spirit for His glory. Amen.