Surrendering to God
Surrender is a daunting prospect.
In natural terms, it suggests losing something or giving in to defeat by way of agreeing to stop fighting because you know you won’t win.
It suggests giving up possession of power or control over to another, typically on demand without the option of choice.
Considering that human beings have a deep-rooted need for control and certainty, this idea of surrender is in direct contrast with what generally feels safe to people. We all have an innate need for a sense of control and without it we are can feel helpless, insecure or threatened. When the need for control becomes an idol or addiction, people may be compelled to manipulate the actions and behaviours of others or live by rigid rules pertaining to order, diet, routine and cleanliness. The belief that one can obtain desired outcomes in life by tightening the grip on things has diminishing returns because ultimately it is not possible to be in control all the time.
The tension between control and surrender is a reality for most people, owing to the beliefs we hold, particularly about surrender. While the natural concept of surrender is more about contraction and weighs heavily on the negative end of the spectrum, in our walk with God, or rather spiritually, surrender is liberating and expansive. It is an act of faith.
Committing all of our ways to the Lord without reservation. Trusting and believing that God will take care of everything in a divinely orchestrated timely manner.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
- Proverbs 3v5-6
When we surrender, we yield our self-will and ego over to an all-powerful God in a childlike way.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”.
- Matthew 18v 3-4
Being like a child with wide-eyed faith requires denying pre-eminence to ego and self-will.
The ego wants to control everything but it falls short each time. It imprisons us to short sighted individual desires, boundaries and limitations that compromise the quality of our lives.
In 1 Samuel 8 the people of Israel demanded for a king. This is what they collectively wanted in an attempt to have more control over their lives and be like other nations. They refused to listen to reason even when Samuel warned them that their expressed will is a direct rejection of Gods rule. Moreover, that their wish for a king would inevitably come with tyranny, taxation, requisition of property and conscription but Vs 19-20 Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." This single act of ego informed self-will changed the trajectory of the nation from a God led people to a canal monarchy and we are probably still experiencing the effects of it in our world today, where the political systems of the world are typically dysfunctional.
The pull towards ego and self-will can be resisted through and by surrendering to God James 4v7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you”. This stance and posture of the heart is daily moment by moment resolution. Deciding to live from a place of “thy will be done” Matthew 6 v 10” at all times and perhaps even saying it out aloud to remind ourselves of our place of surrender.
I sometimes struggle with letting go of past hurts, this is my Achilles’ heel in life. I can’t seem to move on as quickly as I should so I end up entangled in a cycle of the hurt and self-condemnation because of my seeming failure to forgive. I discovered that the temptation to keep holding on to past hurts evokes a sense of perceived control either over the situation or the perpetrator and it is comforting for the ego but detrimental to my spiritual wellbeing. It is a right mess and no easy feat, but recently the Lord has been prompting me to re-surrender every part of my heart that feels perpetually broken. To simply let go into His arms so that I can live within the joy and freedom of surrender. Reassuring me that I can take my worries, hurts, doubts and unfulfilled expectations to Him because I do not have to be in control. I can be still and know that He is God [psalms 46v10 ] who holds everything together.
Surrendering and committing our ways to the Lord can look different in every one of us so the challenge is: reflect on what this means to you, in which area of your life do you need to fully or re-surrender?