The very term “surrender” can be extremely distasteful. We are constantly being told “Be your own person” or “Do whatever you want, whatever makes you happy”. To some, giving up and surrendering means that they have become a doormat, that they are denying themselves happiness and giving in to the wishes of someone else. Surrendering, they say, makes you less of a person, and it can never bring you anything but heartache. In military terms, surrender means that you have lost the battle, that you have been overcome by the enemy. Surrender, therefore, is not a very popular term in today’s society.
But there is a different kind of surrender that is actually right and good. It involves the giving up of my own will to my God, the One Who created me and Who sacrificed His Son so that I might have eternal life in heaven with Him. Making the initial surrender of my life to Him is only the beginning, because as He continues to show me areas of my life that I am still holding onto, things that I haven’t been willing to let Him have and do with whatever He wants. The ultimate example of surrender of one’s will is that of Jesus, who on the brink of the greatest injustice of all time, surrendered Himself to His Father, saying “Not My will, but Yours be done”. Jesus surrendered Himself to His Father, to His executioners, knowing that it was the only way to pay for the sins of all mankind. There are days I am so disgusted with myself that I have to ask the Lord “Why are you bothering with me at all?” The hardest times for me to say “Not my will, but Yours be done” are the ones where we have again been given the news that Crohn’s Disease has recurred in some part of my digestive system. I have to admit that I’m not very happy with God at those moments, that I really have to work long and hard at surrendering my will. It comes down to this: Do I really believe that God wants what is best for me? Do I trust Him to give me His best, even if right now that “best” looks nothing like a blessing from my Heavenly Father? Will I trust Him to give me His strength when I need it most? And most of all, will I ultimately say to Him, “Not my will, but Yours be done”? Surrender is very hard, but the rewards of God’s presence, His peace in the midst of this storm, His strength to go through whatever is required of me, are worth any cost to me. Giving up my “rights”, allowing the God who holds the universe in His hands to do a refining work in me, I am so humbled that He would even WANT TO! Why would I NOT want to surrender my will to Him?
Faith Through the Journey 
Comments on: "On Surrendering" (4)
I’m realizing more frequently that “Thy will be done” is the most difficult and complicated prayer to say to the Lord. The words are easy, but bending my heart to that end is another story.
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Dave, as our pastor often says, knowing what we need to do in our heads is good but doesn’t won’t really change our lives unless it drops 18 inches to our hearts. I’m convinced that, as long as we draw breath, it will be very difficult for us to choose surrender of our will to God’s.
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I so agree with what Dave said. It is difficult to say “Thy will be done” and I find that some days I find myself repeating that phrase even when my heart isn’t quite there. I find that forgiving is just like that. I must choose to relinquish control and to extend forgiveness even when I don’t feel like it. It is by faith in the Lord who died for my sins and empowers me with His Holy Spirit that I can breathe those words!
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I totally agree that surrender is an action of the will, as is forgiveness. Only with the Lord’s help can we do either!
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