Why Surrender? by Lisa Burkhardt Worley
Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans (Psalm 16:3, NIV).
Surrender.
After multiple confirmations, I know that is my word for the year.
It has come up in conversations. It has been central in messages in which I’ve listened. Yesterday morning, as I worshipped via You Tube, the song I Surrender was front and center. I can’t remember the last time that song popped up on my YouTube.
Next week, my husband and I are taking a short sabbatical—something we do every year to seek God’s direction and surrender every aspect of our lives to the LORD. I will be laying our ministry, Pearls of Promise, at His feet, as well as my schooling, family and future. I am wondering if there will be anything God will remove from my schedule? Will something be added? Will there be a shift in direction?
Surrender is a scary word but spiritually it means to turn everything over to God, and to not cling to anything but our Heavenly Father. He might ask us to give up an activity, change jobs, and in some cases, there may be a move involved. It’s a good practice to surrender everything in our lives to God. Why? Because. He knows best.
When looking at biblical examples of surrendering, the Apostle Paul provides a good illustration. After the Damascus Road encounter with the risen Lord, he had to surrender everything He believed about Jesus and “trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6, NKJV). According to John 7, Jesus’ own brothers did not believe He was the Messiah while he walked on this earth, however, post-resurrection, his brothers, James and Jude, surrendered their previous thinking and became leaders in the Christian movement.
Jesus himself had to surrender His will to the will of God. While praying at the Garden of Gethsemene in the last moments before His arrest, Jesus was so distraught about what was coming that he sweat drops of blood. However, he concluded, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42, NIV).
What do you need to surrender in 2024? Have you courageously released your grasp on everything in your life and laid it at the altar? Like Paul, we can simply say, “Lord, what do you want me to do?”