The Blessing of Surrender

It's all backwards!

If you’re looking to get ahead in this world, the idea of surrender is usually not appealing. It signifies an ending, a defeat, or giving up.

But if you’re looking for a life of rich meaning and purpose, sooner or later you’ll discover that surrender is essential, and it is good.

It’s not the end; it’s the starting point.

It’s not defeat; it’s the way to victory.

And the focus is not what you “give up”—it's to whom you are surrendering.

Surrender Is the Starting Point

Remember the old hymn, “Trust and Obey”? One of the lines says this:

But we never can prove

the delights of His love

until all on the altar we lay.

What is “the altar”? The place of surrender.

Our country abounds with teaching about the Christian life. You may hear about prayer, and faith, and how to experience the Lord’s strength. You may hear about joy, peace, triumph over sin, and power for service. But if you have not actually surrendered yourself to Jesus Christ as Lord, you haven’t opened the door to understanding those things or walking in the reality of them.

Webster’s Dictionary defines “surrender” as “to give oneself up into the power of another, especially as a prisoner.”

This calls to mind 2 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV):

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

To the people reading that letter from Paul, the words “leads us in triumph” would have brought to mind a Roman conqueror returning from victory and leading a triumphant procession through the streets in celebration. The parade would include the captives he had won—but only the ones who had surrendered to his rule. Those who resisted were slain, but those who surrendered were set free. They were given a new lease on life and were included in the joyous, triumphant procession.

In the same way, we only experience the beauty of freedom in Jesus, victory and triumph and sweetness, when we willingly give ourselves up to Him.

Let me encourage you to take this very seriously. Jesus said, “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (Luke 9:24).

Is there anything in your life you are afraid to lay at the feet of Jesus?

My guess is this: If there’s something you’re holding back in your heart, you already know what it is. Even as I say this, the Lord is reminding you of it. He’s not going to let you go. Holding onto that thing, whatever it is, will make you miserable until you surrender it to Jesus.

He will often put His finger on the thing nearest and dearest to us, asking us to lay it at His feet, in order that He might truly have our whole heart.

When I was young and just learning what it meant to walk with Jesus, He spoke to my heart one day about surrendering my desire for human love into His hands. All I wanted was to be a wife and mother. That’s not a bad thing; in fact it’s a very good and noble desire! But He wanted my heart to be wholly His.

So I wrote on a piece of paper the words, “My desire for human love.” Then I offered it up to Him in prayer, ripped it up, and threw it away. The word that came to mind in that moment was “SAFE”. I had given that desire to Jesus, and in His hands it was SAFE. Nothing is truly safe until it is surrendered to Him.

I encourage you to take some time before the Lord and write down a list of all the things that comprise your life: the desires you most cherish, your plans and dreams, the people and circumstances that make you who you are. Your family, your house, your job, your time, your reputation… It can be as long as you like—just write down anything that comes to your mind that comprises YOU.

Take a good look at it. Are you willing to surrender ALL of that to the lordship of Jesus? Are you willing to surrender all of yourself into His hands?

Will you offer every item on that list to God in prayer, then rip it up and throw it away?

Then, will you be willing to see your life as a book with blank pages, belonging only to the Lord Jesus to write?

That’s surrender. It’s the chosen stance of heart: “I am not my own: I am bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), and I belong to the Lord.”

Surrender Is To a Person

The nature of the word “surrender” implies an object. You are surrendering to something or someone. The whole point is not the action of surrender itself, but the object of the surrender.

Too often when we think of surrender, we focus on what we are giving up, laying down, or sacrificing. But that’s really a self-centered way of thinking. Let’s think instead about to whom we are surrendering.

We’re talking about the wonderful, lovely, beautiful, almighty, glorious Lord Jesus. He is the Son of God who laid down His own life for us in order to set us free from sin’s penalty and power. He is risen and exalted at the right hand of the Father. He is very real, and one day we will see His face. He is worthy, and He loves us.

Let me illustrate it this way. The day I walked down the aisle to marry Dan Johnson, I “surrendered” a lot of things: my name, my family, my home, my church, and a ministry job I loved. I laid down the rights to my own time, my own future, my own plans, even my own body. I forsook in that moment the possibility of choosing anyone else, 'til death do us part.

But in that moment, I wasn’t thinking about ANY of those things as if I were “giving up” something. I was thinking about the person standing at the end of the aisle waiting for me. He was a wonderful man, and I was amazed that he would even love me and choose me. The surrender was a glad surrender!

That's just an earthly illustration, but the point is this: When you know someone is good and that they love you, then surrender for their sake doesn’t even feel like surrender. It feels like a blessed privilege. The wedding day is just the opening of the door to a whole new life of getting to know that person and experience the blessings of who they are.

If we were to see the Lord Jesus right now, with our physical eyes, in all His glory, we would realize that surrender to Him is not really a sacrifice at all. It’s a blessed privilege, because then we really get to know His love. It’s a wondrous thing that He receives us when we come! And Jesus said, “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37).

So remember, “We never can prove the delights of His love until all on the altar we lay.” Let surrender to Jesus be your starting point. Be very intentional and very specific in this. Then go on to explore and to prove the delights of His love—because you are surrendering to a Person, who is worthy, and who loves you with perfect love.

To the world, this is all backwards! But it is the way of truest blessing.