Lessons on Surrender

Surrender... surrender... surrender. It is a constant act. In high school the act of surrender boggled my little mind. Everytime I thought I'd given something up, there it was once more. It would taunt me, overwhelm me, and make me feel sick. As time passed, I became accustomed to the anxious feeling and found things to be anxious about. It was a horrible pattern.

Since that time of my life I have learned a great deal about the act of surrender. There is much I have yet to learn, but I am thankful for the learning that has already taken place.

One thing I've learned is that surrender is supposed to be constant. In this world we are trained to please self and take control. It is foreign to give up control. The choice, however, is always ours because God will never force Himself on us. By constantly surrendering, we are on the defense. As each temptation comes we're saying "No!"
Another thing I've learned about the act of surrender is that it is an act. It is a choice that we make. Yes, often we make it after we come to the end of ourself, but it is still a choice.

One's attitude is not, "Oh sigh... okay... if You can do better with it, fine. But don't screw it up!" That is a selfish attitude of experimenting but not trusting that Jesus Christ is able, willing, and wanting to take our various burdens from us and do what is the very best - whatever that may be. When we surrender "it" to Jesus, it should be an act of praise, an act of worship, an offering. Our attitude should be one of joy, thankfulness, and childlike faith in our loving Savior.

Surrender requires follow through. When Christ chose to surrender His life for salvation, He did not go back. He followed through.  He died. In the same way, we are called to die to ourselves. When we surrender something to Christ we are dying to it. It no longer controls our thoughts or actions. If we continue to dwell on it, we aren't allowing Jesus to control it. In fact, it has control of us.

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." - 2 Corinthians 10:5

We must put this verse into practice in order to surrender! Give it up to Jesus and then take every thought captive.

"What if?..." - "No!"
"I wish...." - "No!"
"Maybe I should..." - "No!"
"If only..." - "No!"

If the thought is one that frets, seeks control, or ignores the previous act of surrender, squash it quickly! Tell it "No way!" Replace it with thoughts of Christ, His peace, and His authority. Replace it with,
"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things." - Philippians 4:8

Seek the Holy Spirit for strength to withstand the temptation of these thoughts. By the enabling power of the Lord, we can take each thought captive. As a result, our surrender will last. Why? Simply because those manipulative thoughts will no longer be able to decieve us into taking back control.

These are just a few things I've learned about surrender. More are sure to come.

Sanctified and Surrendered by Caitlin Marie Stacy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.