A few thoughts about surrendering to God

Dear reader,

    I have always thought about surrender in the negative sense of, if I surrender to you, you have control over me and I become a victim. I am not free to be me. But today, I awoke with a different realization. I was wrong about it.

    It isn't about saying, God you do it all and I am just going to sit here and everything will happen. When I thought of surrender, to me it was like God wants to robotise me. But the truth of the matter is that, if God wanted us to be who he is, he wouldn’t have made us in the first place. He made us out of love. We are his creation. He is in us no matter what. And so, when we say we surrender, we ought to remember that it has something to do with free will. It is a choice. It happens when you come to this realization;

‘God made me. He gave me abilities and a brain to make sound decisions. I can do whatever I want on my own. I don’t have to like ask elsewhere. But there is a limit to what I can do. I can only go until where I am consciously aware of going or where I think I can and that with God, I can go far. The realisation that I am a sinner. Somehow not enough on my own and I need God. I have done life on my own, where has it taken me? I need him more than anything.’

  

Photo from unsplash by Darius Bashar

    And so, surrender is the knowing of lack, realisation of sin. It is repentance. It is saying, you have it all, I surrender to you. You are my champion. I am giving everything to you. For everything else to work in my life, I need you. And so, as the bible says, I will carry my cross daily and leave at Jesus Christ's feet. I will do what God says since it comes before myself. Him first then everything else follows. For if I do on my own accord, then he is out of the picture.

 

    Surrendering to him means he becomes king over my life. Not in the way of saying he is a dictator and you are a victim but in a way that is like a father and son. What he tells you to do is good for you. It is love. You love your father and do what he says because of that. Because of the trust. It’s all because of that. I’m giving God everything for him to lead. When I walk, I will follow his voice, his word-I will do what he says. When it comes to making a decision, it will be in line with God’s word and will over my life. Because he knows better.

 

    Surrender is a beautiful thing. It is sacrifice. It is commitment. No to me but yes to you. To God. And it is love because God eventually gives you your desires. Everything else follows because he knows of your need of it.

 

Photo from unsplash by Fa Barboza

    God is interested in one thing. Our heart. For it to be postured towards him not ourselves. For us to trust him and for him to be able to trust us. That we will do what he says. That’s love right there. Surrendering. You mean more than me. Or anything and so I will do what you say, what you love and what you want for me.

 

    Surrender is like commitment. Its scary, but God helps us to know it is actually beautiful and lovely. He shows it to us when we let him. I told God I have a hard time surrendering to him and I need him to help me surrender to him and know what it is before I do. To prove my ideas of it wrong and he has. When you pray this prayer, I know God will show you what surrender is the way that he knows you will understand. All you have to do is ask.

 

Until next time: