What are you surrendering yourself to? What do you draw your security from? What is your source of life?
If I had to speculate, I would say there are three answers most people would give: family, money, and country. It makes sense, doesn’t it? It is our family that gives many of us purpose and meaning. It is our finances that allow us to feel at ease, or cause us to be alarmed. It is our nation that provides us a sense of peace and an identity. But this was never God’s intention. God desires that we surrender to Him and Him alone.
“Rest in God alone, my soul, for my hope comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold; I will not be shaken. My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock. My refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before him. God is our refuge” (Psalm 62:5-8).
This is not for His benefit but for ours. If our trust is in people, then we will be disappointed and feel betrayed (Isaiah 2:22). If our trust is in our finances, then we are surrendering ourselves to the world. There is nothing that will turn us away faster than a trust in money (Matthew 6:24). If our security comes from our nation, then we will never feel peace. Jesus Himself warns us that, “nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom…” (Matthew 24:6). We see it in our world around us: war is brewing all the time, and tensions are always tight. If we rely on our nation to protect our peace, we will never have it. We can only feel at ease when we put our security, life, and trust, in God—when we surrender to God alone.
But how do we find our way to surrendering fully to God? First, we need to surrender our security to God alone. That means we need to embrace the mindset God gives us in Deuteronomy 32:31,39, “But their ‘rock’ is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede…See now that I alone am he; there is no God but me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal. No one can rescue anyone from my power.” Fact is, nothing on this planet can offer you the same promise, so why put your trust in anything else?
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Second, we need to learn how to surrender every thought to Him. Paul commands us to “not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). He is asking us to fundamentally change the way our brains work by executing control over our minds. Honestly, there is nothing more chaotic than our thoughts. In a moment, our thoughts can consume, destroy, or derail our psyche. If we are going to have any hope at peace, we need to learn to, “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5b). Surrender your thoughts to Jesus Christ alone, “and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
Finally, we need to surrender our pride to God. The first sin humanity committed was based in the concept of pride, but quite honestly, every sin since then has been based on the same concept. Lust is putting your sexual desire over the pure way we are supposed to view others. Gossip is a way of manipulating and degrading others for your own benefit. Pride is the reason that every sin forces us as people to become self-centric. To beat this and effectively surrender to God, we need to take on the mindset of John the Baptist. He tells his disciples that, “he must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30). John understood we have to learn to slowly surrender more and more of ourselves to ensure that we abstain from the temptation of pride. What can you surrender to God today?
Like the words of the famous hymn, “I surrender all, I surrender all. All to thee, my precious savior, I surrender all.”
Bishop Darby
