Surrender

I've been thinking a lot lately about surrender. The usual connotation of surrender is negative. It means defeat or giving up. Crying "uncle" was what it took to make the local bully leave you alone when I was a kid. That was definitely surrender by giving up to his might.

I had a uncle, my mother's brother, who would not surrender his money to a robber and was gunned down and died back in the 60's in the store he ran here in my hometown. His lack of surrender came at a great price.

Sometimes those childhood memories or thoughts of wartime surrender make it difficult to surrender to God. I don't want to give up my freedom or be disappointed if God doesn't do what I think He should do. I don't want to feel bullied or pressured to give up something I want to hold on to.

I know that God says He wants only the best for me. I know He loves me. I know He's WAY smarter than me and even knows what next year will look like for me when I don't know what the next hour will look like. So why don't I trust Him?

For a long time I didn't. I was His child but kept Him out of the loop (it's funny I would even think that because that's an impossibility since God knows EVERYTHING!) as I blundered through life going to church and reading my Bible but making my decisions my way.

I knew so much ABOUT God but didn't really know Him. Until I came up against something I couldn't fix. I had to make a decision then if I would believe Him and the promises He made to care for me, to guide me, to give me wisdom. It was not an easy surrender but once I told God from the depths of my heart, I do trust You and believe what You say, I understood what surrender to God is.

It boils down to trust. If I really trust Him, really believe Him, really know Him, I will strive to surrender all of me - past, present and future - to Him. New opportunities, new challenges are always surfacing where I have to decide again to surrender and to trust God.

God is not a bully who wants me to cry uncle. He certainly doesn't want me to live in defeat. Surrender to God is the most satisfying experience a person can ever have. Does that mean life is all roses and blue skies and happy days? Absolutely not. But it does mean that I have learned that He means what He says and says what He means. God can be trusted completely!