Surrender=Freedom

One of my posts was featured on Amy's blog this week. I had originally written it for her newsletter, but that was discontinued some time ago, so she kindly shared it on her blog. You can check it out HERE. :) 

My post for this week was written specifically for my Bible study group. Of the three Communities that our group participates in (prayer, Scripture memorization, and Scripture reading), I am the moderator of the Scripture reading community. And for the purposes of encouraging one another to stay in the Word, I write out a (sometimes short ;) encouragement post on a monthly basis. Several of those posts I've shared here already. And today's post provides yet another reason to faithfully read Scripture: to teach us to surrender. 

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We read Scripture to bring our minds into line with God’s Word. So often we tend to take control of every single detail of our lives that we forget Who’s really ruling the events of this universe. I’m not saying that we release all responsibility for everything we do, that would also be wrong. Surrender is a mental practice more than anything. It’s a willingness to take responsibility for what we do, do the best in everything we do, but yet release the results and future of it to God’s care. It’s a purposeful, conscious decision to submit to God’s ordering of our lives knowing that He can use the sinful and the righteous to fulfill His design for each of us.

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)

Sometimes we surrender big things…careers, jobs, performance opportunities, relationships, finances, fears, etc. And sometimes surrender is needed for the smallest things, too: your daily schedule, that phone call, that social outing, the spoken word, the to-do list that didn’t get done. We surrender to find freedom, because holding tightly to things that aren’t ours to control will only hurt us and others. Surrender is a reminder to us that God gave us a will and charged us with responsibility in this life, but He’s still God. He’s the one on the throne. Surrender doesn’t change God; it changes us. It reminds us that we’re not in control of everything, that we don’t have to be either. The world doesn’t rest on our shoulders. It held in the hands of Jesus. Surrender reminds us that it’s God who works in us, and at the end of the day, it’s God who makes and will make all things good. Surrender reminds us of our position under Christ.

Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matthew 16:24-25)

Surrender is not giving up. Sometimes it means fighting for what’s right even when there isn’t any hope in sight. Surrender means yielding everything you have to Christ and letting Him create the end result. Sometimes that means burning yourself out in doing what God has commanded you to do, and then standing aside and praying that the Holy Spirit shows you the results.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12b-13)

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. (Philippians 3:12) 

Perhaps one of the best visible ways (though certainly not the only way) we surrender is through forgiveness. Forgiveness is releasing a person from the debt they owed you. A debt they couldn’t repay. Forgiveness means that you don’t bring up the offense to yourself, to that person, or to others. It means releasing that person from their bondage to you (whether or not they acknowledge it) and not expecting “payment”.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (Colossians 3:12-13)

But whether surrender is shown through forgiveness or whether it’s a prayer in the middle of the night, surrender is a giving up of ourselves to Christ. After all, we are called to be “little Christs”, and He not only demonstrated surrender to His Father’s will, but He also demonstrated surrender when He said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”. In that surrender, He found victory. No, He created the victory that we would live in. We read Scripture to bring our hearts and minds into surrender. In the words of life we find that the Holy Spirit is the one who brings our wills into line with God’s will. In surrender you find freedom, you find victory, because you’re not in control. God is.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. (1 John 5:4)

And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." (Matthew 26:39)