The Peace of Surrender

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that ye present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1

There is a place where many Christians are about as dishonest as they can be and that's in their own church worship centers. The biggest lies we participate in occur during the music portion of our worship services. We sing with great heart, the wonderful old hymns and some new ones without giving a thought to what we are singing. They are lies, none the less. I'm thinking of some of them that are the “I will” types of song. Those that aren't, should convict us as well. For instance:

*Where He leads me I will follow”
“Because He lives I can face tomorrow”
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine”
“Joyful, joyful we adore thee”
“I know whom I have believed”
“It is well, it is well with my soul”
“Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus”

and the really big song often used for invitation time at the end of a service is the familiar:

“All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give.|
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live.”

How often have we stood singing the words of that hymn, just hoping the music leader would only sing two verses instead of four. Forget the words, as we already knew them. It was already pretty close to noon and the roast in the oven at home was probably ready for eating. Sounds pitiful and exaggerated doesn't it but I'm afraid the most of us have been there.

What does it mean to live in surrender to our Lord. Surrender is a term of battle. When one army surrenders to the victorious army, certain things occur. The losing army in history has put down their arms, even turning them over to the victors. They gave the victors anything they requested. Suddenly the losing army had no control over their lives or possessions. They were totally at the mercy of the victors.

There is another kind of surrender. It is that of volunteer surrender. There may still be a battle within us but any kind of surrender is when one gives their followership to another of higher authority. I recall hearing of a mother who was trying to put her four year old boy in a chair in the corner for a time out. After a bit of resistance, she got him there. However, he turned to his mother and said, “I may be sitting in this chair, but inside of me, I'm still standing up.”

I think that's often how we respond to God when he puts a call of surrender on our lives. We live time after time living for God on our own terms being our own authority, living for God on our own terms. When there is total surrender, believe it or not, there is peace, peace in abundance. With surrender to God is peace because we put out entire well being into His very capable hands.

All of us have been in situations at times where there is rebellion. By the way, rebellion is an attitude that fights surrender. School classrooms can be in turmoil if there is even one student with a rebellious attitude toward the authority of the teacher. Homes can be in turmoil if there are children who refuse to yield to the authority of their parents. Bosses in various areas of business often have to fire employees who refuse to comply with simple requests. Any policeman can attest to the difficulty of dealing with rebellious citizens.

Like it or not, as a Christian, I must recognize God is my true, loving and ultimate authority. It makes no difference if I don't like it or if I don't want to comply. Rebellion against God is far more serious than we can imagine. Many Christians wonder why things go so wrong in their lives or always have such “bad luck” as if there is such a thing. Even when surrendered to God, we will face difficulties, but as we live in right relationship with our Heavenly Father, we can live in peace knowing He is in control of our situations and of our care and well being.

Believe it or now, with surrender comes peace. In the case of two earthly armies, for the losing side, the peace may be an uneasy one but it is peace none the less. When surrender is voluntary, it is so much more meaningful. We are looking at a new year. How wonderful if we could enter it with complete surrender to our Heavenly Father, for Him to take and use us as He sees fit. We don't know what a new year holds for any of us but I can't trust the world to take care of me, to give me peace and happiness. I can, however, rely on my Heavenly Father to see me through the happy and rough times and so can you. In the end, a yielded heart will be blessed and at peace knowing our Father does all things well on our behalf. The happiest new year we can have is a year with yielded hearts to our trustworthy Father who has given His all for us. Can we do no less.

Father, help us as we approach 2018 to be real and authentic in our walk with You. Help us to have surrendered hearts for Your honor and glory. We want to be used by You this year like never before. Thank You Jesus for making eternity a reality in our livies. In Your precious name....Amen