“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? … Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”—from Psalm 139, a psalm of surrender
In the Christian life we talk a lot about surrendering. Giving everything over to the Lord.
The Bible seldom uses the word surrender. It is never used in the King James Version. The New King James and NIV translations use it a few times, usually about surrendering to a king or conquering power.
But the concept runs throughout the Word. From Abraham to Noah, David, Mary, and others, their stories portray a moment of revelation and surrender to God’s will.
But all merely foreshadowed the surrender of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Weeping, sweating drops of blood, wrestling with what He knew was coming, He gave Himself wholly, proclaiming, “Not My will but Yours be done.”
Surrender is defined as “giving up, giving in, yielding.” When we surrender to God:
We are giving up our selfishness, our egos, our willful defiance.
We are giving in to mercy, hope, forgiveness, service, love.
We are surrendering to a Kingdom and a loving Father.
We are giving ourselves to the God who loves us, allowing Him to fulfill His promises of comfort in the midst of heartache, abundant life, joy, love and hope for the future.
“Present your bodies as a living sacrifice,” urged the apostle (Romans 12:1).
To surrender is to give your whole self. To agree with King David: there is no where to go without God, and only He can lead us “in the way everlasting.”
To surrender is to declare with Jesus, “Not my will, but Yours.” The only gift God desires.
“He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself.” —C.S. Lewis
