In response to God’s convicting and awakening grace, we have the opportunity to take important steps on the narrow road that leads to redemption. Our first step is confession. We talked about confession in last week’s article.
Our second step is surrender. The word surrender has several meanings. The first is the declaration of defeat that brings about the end of fighting and hostilities. For many of us, coming to a place of surrender in our relationship with God required fighting and hostility, not with God, but with our own defiant and stubborn pride. We didn’t want to give up the control of life to God or bend the knee to confess Jesus Christ is Lord. We fought against it — and suffered the painful consequences of our choices. Our confession and surrender marked the end of hostility fueled by our stiff-necked defiance. Stiff-necked — See Exodus 32:9 and Acts 7:51.
Surrender can also be defined as an act of willing submission to authority. Surrender is a powerful expression of worship — an act of willing submission to the sovereignty of Almighty God. Paul described it this way in Romans 12:2, Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship.
We humans struggle with the concept of surrender. It’s probably because God endowed us with divine traits and empowered us with earthly authority. We learn this from Genesis 1:26-28.
Made in God’s image, we are lured into the trap of thinking we are gods — or at least kings of the jungle and masters of our own destiny. We defiantly reject God’s sovereignty and are unwilling to bow the knee and confess Jesus Christ is Lord. It is our undoing.
The Discipline of Surrender
The Scriptures are full of warnings against pride and arrogance, so we’ll let God’s Word speak to us. I use the word constantly in each statement because surrender isn’t a one-time thing — it’s an every-moment discipline in the surrendered Christian life.
1. Constantly surrender pride and arrogance.
Romans 12:3: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment.
James 4:6, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
Psalm 51:17: My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
2. Constantly speak of God’s greatness.
Isaiah 55:9, God’s ways are higher than our ways.
Acts 7:49, The heavens are the throne of God, and the earth is his footstool.
Romans 9:20, But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?
You can also read Romans 11:33-36 and Job 42:1-6.
3. Constantly yield to God’s sovereignty over our lives.
James 4:13-17, Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
You can also read Luke 12:16-21. Jesus warns us against thinking we have control over anything.
4. Constantly remember that God alone is the eternal Judge.
James 4:6-12, But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
In Matthew 10:28, Jesus warns us about God’s eternal judgment: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
5. Constantly surrender fear and worry through trust.
I John 4:17-18, There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. Trust is a powerful form of surrender. God will ask us to do hard things and to take risks. Surrendering to His sovereign love and will set us free from fear and worry.
Proverbs 3:5-6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.
In response to God’s convicting and awakening grace, confession and surrender lead us forward on the road to redemption.
In the New Year, I pray that God’s grace will allow us the blessing of traveling that road together as we continue our Faith Conversations. Happy New Year — and to God be the glory!
Note: This is the tenth article in a series called Overcoming the Five Failures of Us. Previous articles are always available at http://www.webbweekly.com.
