Many of us dread the word “surrender” when it comes to giving up our lives to the Lord. It feels like we are losing our own lives and identity. Well, it is a scary thing because it is exactly that: losing our own selves, losing our own lives and losing our own identity for the sake of Christ. When it comes to following Jesus Christ and surrendering our all to Him, it really means all. Apostle Paul told us that when we become Christ’s we become a new creation, the old things are passed away and everything becomes new. We are not our own anymore, we belong to Christ and we become His. We are new creatures. {2 Corinthians 5:17}
We may like the idea of becoming a new creation. Perhaps because we’re tired of living the way we’ve been living, and the Lord has made some radical change in our lives. However, when the Holy Ghost deals with us about actually giving up a certain lifestyle that we like to indulge in now and then, we run away from Him. We don’t find surrendering that attractive anymore. Especially when He wants us to do His work and live for Him, and not for our own selves. Then the idea of surrendering becomes pretty scary. We end up wanting to run away from Him and wanting to do our own thing. The only problem with that is, if we continue to insist on living the life that we want to live when the Lord is already dealing with us about giving up everything to Him, He warned us that in the end we will end up losing everything, including the Lord. On the other hand if we lose our selves to Him now and give up our lives to Him, we will gain our life in the end. He said:
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. {Luke 9:24}
Surrendering is a must in having God in our lives. If we want more of Him we need to surrender every part of ourselves to Him. The more we surrender to Him, the more we will have Him. The more we have God, the more we will experience His power and His glory in our lives. We might be losing our own plans and ideas, but we will gain so much more. We will gain Jesus Christ, the Creator of heaven and earth, and the giver of life. Who doesn’t want that? He will give us worth, He will give us meaning, and He will give us a purpose in this life the likes of which we’ve never dreamed of before. Prophet Daniel tells us, “But the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.” {Daniel 11:32} We will see God like we’ve never seen Him before. We will become like Jesus, who is full of goodness and truth. We will experience His peace that passes man’s understanding. We will experience more of His love and His joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. We will experience a life with Jesus that is full of power and grace, that the world can never give to us. Even after this life, we will have life everlasting with Him.
Surrendering our lives to the Lord is a daily process. Don’t’ be too hard on yourself if it’s not happening so quickly. For some of us it’s taken years to finally commit ourselves to His work, and that is okay. I remember a time when God was asking me to give up my life for Him. I just turned seventeen and I was asking Him in prayer to save me from a problem I was facing. I thought that if I make a promise to do something for Him, He will be more convinced to save me from my problem. But then as I was thinking about what promise I should make, I felt Him asking me to give up my life to Him. I was about to take Him up on it and say, “I will give my life to You if you save me from this,” when I realized I was too young to give my life up to the Lord. I was only seventeen years old. I thought I was too young. So I changed my prayer to “live” my life for Him rather than “give” my life to Him. You might think there’s no difference, but to me there was. I figured I can live my life for Him, like go to church, sing His songs, continue to teach Sunday school, and give my tithes and offering. But to give Him my life, especially who to marry and what career I was going to have, that part was going to be all mine. I didn’t have a problem giving Him all the other stuff because I had done most of it growing up anyway. But the personal things that mattered to me, like my spouse and my career, I didn’t want that to be His decision because I didn’t trust Him enough to make the right decision for me. I didn’t believe He knew what will make me happy.
The process of surrendering takes time. Even though I had finally said the right prayer a couple of years later, still throughout the years I find myself again and again needing to recommit myself to the Lord. I sometimes would feel a tug of war with Him versus the desires I had for the world. It’s not always that easy responding to the call of the Lord and to do His work, especially when part of our heart still belongs to the world. Remember Peter, when he didn’t see the Lord after He rose from the dead? He went and convinced his friends to go fishing with him. It was like, “out of sight, out of mind” with Peter. The Lord is not around anymore, what else is there to do? Let’s go fishing. That’s why we find the Lord asking Peter later, “Do you love Me?” The Lord asked Peter three times if he loved Him. Finally he told the Lord, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” {John 21:17} The Lord knew Peter was being hesitant about committing his life to the cause of the Lord, to follow Him all the way. He was asking Peter that question, “Do you love Me?” because the Lord wanted Peter to understand that when it comes to loving Him, he must surrender all the way.
Apostle Peter might have struggled in the beginning about surrendering his life to the Lord, but later on we see him being used by God so mightily on the day of Pentecost. After Peter received the Holy Ghost fire of God, he became surrendered to Him. When the Spirit of God was poured on the day of Pentecost to the disciples of Jesus Christ who waited for His power in the upper room, they were all changed men and women. We see Peter completely surrendered to the cause of the Lord with the rest of the disciples, preaching His word and ministering to the lives of many men and women in their time. Peter had no qualms about standing up for Jesus to the same Jews that killed Him. He told them, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” {Acts 4:12} Peter became a true follower of Jesus Christ, a surrendered life that the Lord was pleased with.
All it takes is a desire to live for God and to follow Him. A desire to say “Yes, Lord, I will follow You even when I don’t understand everything.” Jesus Christ does the work in us. If we’re just willing to follow Him every day, even when we struggle, even when we don’t understand everything, and especially when there are temptations and trials, He will change us. If we just call on His name and trust Him to do the work He needs to do in us, especially to give us more love for Him, we will be changed. He will empower us to do the work that He needs for us to do. All we need to do is trust Him and obey His voice to do His work. We need to have faith in His love for us. We need to believe that He will not fail us whatever happens because He is faithful. He promised to be here for us and to help us. He said, “I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” {John 14:18} He will help us surrender to Him if we just come to Him and talk to Him everyday.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. {Ezekiel 36:26}
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank You Father that You are faithful. You are always here for us and will never leave us. You are as near to us as a whispered prayer from our hearts. As long as we’re coming to You with all of our hearts, You will hear us.
Father, help us once again to recommit ourselves to You, to trust to You our lives and our desires. Help us trust in Your great love for us. You will not fail us. You will be here for us until the end. It doesn’t matter whatever it is You are calling us to do for You, You will be there to help us, because You are faithful until the end. Help us Savior to trust in You. Help us everyday to surrender our will and our desires to You, to do Your work today, I pray. In Your most wonderful and lovely name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
