Understanding Surrender to God: A Guide

“There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way to death.”
Proverbs 14:12

Surrender is a word that gets thrown about a lot. You hear it on the news, you read about in the pages of your favourite novel, it echoes in the church auditorium. But what is surrender? What does it mean in the context of surrendering to God?

You may have noticed I started this post with Proverbs 14:12, you may be thinking it’s an interesting verse to open with. It certainly catches attention but that’s not why I chose it. I picked it for its relevance to surrender. At first glance it doesn’t seem like it is but when you dig deeper you will understand why it is.

So let’s dig deeper.

What is surrender?

To surrender means to give in, to let go, to stop resisting.

“And do not offer any parts of it to sin as weapons for unrighteousness. But as those who are alive from the dead, offer yourselves to God, and all the parts of yourselves to God as weapons for righteousness.”
Romans 6:13

In the context of surrendering to God this means letting go of the past and keeping our focus on God because He is our future. It means grudges and hatred that we have held onto must be released. We set aside control of our hopes and dreams and give them to God with the knowledge that God can give us a better future than we could if we relied on our own strength.

“For I know the plans I have for you” – this is the Lord’s declaration – “plans for your wellbeing, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11

Surrendering to God means seeking His will and sacrificing our sinful desires. To surrender means denying ourselves.

“Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
Mark 8:34

What does it mean to deny ourselves?

To deny ourselves is to resist our selfish desires and tendencies in order to pursue a holier and purer life with God. It means acknowledging that we are not the centre of the universe, the world does not revolve around us.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2:20

So how do we surrender to God?

Both surrendering to God and denying ourselves require sacrifice and preparation. We have to be prepared to resist the temptation of sin. We have to be prepared to sacrifice ourselves to deny ourselves and potentially to be martyred for Christ. We have to face the possibilities of losing people we love just because we chose to follow Jesus.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see the new has come.”
2 Corinthians 5:17

It is not easy surrendering to God. It was never meant to be but it is worth it. We can’t surrender in our own strength we rely on God to give us the strength. But with Him as we read in 2 Corinthians 5:17 we are made new, and because we are made new we are no longer held down by the things that used to hold us like sin and shame. But just because we are made new doesn’t make surrender any easier every day that we live to see is a spiritual battle between the forces of light and darkness.

Without surrender life is simply not worth living. Denying ourselves and surrendering to God is the only way to live a fulfilling and joyful life. Any other way ends in death. Now you understand why I began this post with Proverbs 14:12, if we were to live a life without surrendering to God we would be miserable and spend our lives chasing pleasure that doesn’t last. Living that way only brings disappointment but with God we have hope and a future as it says in Jeremiah 29:11.

“He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21

We are known by God and loved by Him. He gave His son’s life so that we may live in eternity with Him. God wants us to surrender and deny ourselves, not because He wants us to be unhappy with our lives but so He can make them better than we can imagine.

There is no point only offering up part of our lives to God. He wants us to come to Him whole, humble and flawed. He gave His son so we give our entire life. Jesus spent His time on earth learning, teaching and healing. Everything Jesus did was a living testimony to our Father in Heaven. While we may not be the perfect being that He was while on earth, we can learn from His example by spending time in the Word of God, by sharing this truth and be living testimonies of God. But all this begins with surrendering to God and saying to Him:

“Lord, your ways are greater than mine, your plan is better than mine. Let your will be done in Jesus name, Amen.”