Once again, I’ve had a word rambling around in my head. It’s a word that isn’t always easy to fulfill or live out and I’m guessing that’s why it’s been on my mind. The word? Surrender. The dictionary has several definitions, but the one that jumped off the page at me was, “to give oneself up into the power of another : to yield.”
We are living in a time when very few really want to surrender. We think that to surrender is a sign of weakness…of giving up…of letting someone else win. “Why should I be the one to give in? Why should I surrender my rights? I’ve worked hard to get where I am…I’m not giving in to anyone. There is no way I’m letting you tell me what to do!” Sound familiar to anyone?
This may come as a shock to some of you …but I can be bull-headed…so I might have had one or more of those statements going through my mind at various times over the years. To surrender might mean that I will have to give up some of my rights and that isn’t always easy to swallow. It might mean that what I want to do…won’t be what I’m supposed to do…and that can easily rub me the wrong way.
Of course, there is really only one person I must totally surrender to…and that is my Jesus. The reason is that if I am completely, unequivocally sold out to Him and He asks me to surrender my ways or my rights for someone or something else, I will do it willingly because I will want to serve Him in every way.
I think I sometimes struggle with this because I feel like I’m missing out on something if I have to give up my desires or plans. But this dictionary definition of surrender has me wondering if it can be applied to my surrendering to Jesus. If I apply it spiritually, could it be that if I allow Him to have complete control of my life, I’m not going to lose anything, I’m going to gain more! It said, “to give oneself up into (emphasis mine) the power of another : to yield.” Hmmmm…when I give everything over to my Lord, I’m not living under His power…I’m living into His power! My power is exchanged for His power as I yield to Him, and I don’t know about you…but I’m guessing His power is a whole lot better than anything I can ever muster!
Last week I read some verses in Romans 8 in The Message which said, “It stands to reason, doesn’t it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he’ll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s!” Wow, that gives me goosebumps! When we surrender to Christ, His power is in us and as I shared last week, the power that He used to part the Red Sea is the same power that we have available to us. Oh, if we could only grasp that truth.
If you are struggling with surrendering completely to Christ today, let me ask you a few questions. How’s that going for you? Are you at peace? Are you feeling led and empowered by Him…or are you feeling lost and weak? We serve a Savior who is able to do far more with what you have than you can…so why not let Him take the wheel of your life completely today. You just might discover that surrendering completely to Him isn’t so bad after all…and is the best decision you will ever make!
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