A Surrendered Life

              "God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him."
                                                          Andrew Murray




As we are entering in to Easter week, I have been reflecting on Jesus' life and how He completely surrendered His will to His Father. Over and over again, Jesus slipped away from the crowds in order to spend time alone with His Father and to seek His heart and His will. Only one time in scripture do we see Jesus asking His Father to possibly reconsider His plans when He said, "Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine" (Luke 22:42, NLT). And, this petition only happened after Jesus was distressed enough to sweat drops of blood.

Jesus exemplifies a perfect life of surrender to His Father. He was directed by God and followed His leading. He walked in faith and expected to see miracles and God's faithful provision for His life. He waited on God's timing and trusted that God's purposes would be accomplished. From the fountain of intimacy that Jesus shared with His Father, He knew that He could rely on the fact that God had His back and would never let Him down. Jesus understood the heart of His Father which enabled Him to trust His heart without doubt or insecurity.

Fast forward to today. In our culture, the word surrender seldom holds a positive connotation.  The word is actually a military term that means "to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand; to give up completely or agree to forgo; to give oneself up into the power of another especially as a prisoner; to give oneself over to something". Giving in and giving up are typically not popular messages conveyed throughout our society.

And yet, a surrendered life is exactly what God calls us to:

(Jesus said) "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow 
                     Me" (Matthew 16:24-25)

(Peter said) "Behold, we have left everything and followed You" (Mark 10:28).

(Isaiah said) "But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our Potter; and all of 
                      us are the work of Your hand" (Isaiah 64:8).

(Jeremiah said) "O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to
                           direct his steps" (Jeremiah 10:23).

(Paul said) "I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is
                    no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith
                    [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me
                    and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2:20).


In our Christian walk, surrendering occurs at different levels. Initially, we surrender to the Holy Spirit when we receive salvation (Acts 2:21). When we let go of our own attempts to curry God's favor and rely upon the finished work of Christ, we become His children (2 Corinthians 5:21). Then there are other times in our lives where God requires a greater level of surrender that will bring greater intimacy with God and greater power for His service. The more we are yielded, the more we can be filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).

God does not want a part of us; He wants all of us. If we compartmentalize our lives, we miss out on the abundant life that Jesus died for us to have. Surrendering to His Lordship completely brings the fruit of the Spirit, His manifest presence,  and a myriad of blessings. By surrendering our will completely to His, we settle the battle with our flesh that desires to have things its own way.

This is not to say that there will never be another battle. It is to say that we have decided to yield our will to His, and, over time the fury of this battle subsides. As we mature spiritually, we learn to war against our self-centered nature and walk in  the victory that Jesus died for us to have. This requires intentionality, denying of self, and picking up our cross daily to follow after Him.

Instead of trying harder, we learn to trust and rely on Him more. We follow God's lead, even when we don't know where He is leading. We wait on His timing without demanding to know when that will come. We expect His miracles and provision without any idea of from where it will come. We trust in His purpose without understanding the circumstances which we are experiencing.

We let go of control, manipulation, and forcing our own agenda. When Jesus said, "not my will but thy will be done", He was telling God that if it was in His best interest to take the suffering away, then by all means to do so. However, if His suffering (or pain, or sickness, or circumstances) were needed to fulfill God's purposes and glory in His life or in another's life, then please do not take it away.

Oswald Chambers said, "Physical courage is grand, moral courage is grander, but the man who trusts Jesus Christ in the face of the terrific problems of life is worth a whole crowd of heroes."

There is so much in this life that we will never understand. The day we step into eternity, however, our minds will be illumined and suddenly the things that made no sense on earth will make perfect sense. We will see without a veil and we will be like Jesus!

If we grapple with fear because of the uncertainties of this world in which we live, we need a greater revelation of God's love for us personally. When we ask God for this revelation, He will gladly give it to us. If Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners, we can trust that He will gladly give us all we need for life and godliness.

He loves us so much! He loves us in spite of ourselves. His plans for us are good. It is His will to redeem and restore every aspect of our lives and families. It is because of His obedience and yieldedness to His heavenly Father, that, we too, can live a surrendered life!


                "The Lord can do no unloving thing toward one of His children."
                                                   Charles Spurgeon