In the book of Romans, Paul devotes 11 chapters to explaining God’s incredible grace. However, starting in chapter 12, Paul urges us to fully surrender our lives to God in worship. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.”
Surrender is an unpopular word, disliked almost as much as the word submission. It implies losing, and no one wants to be a loser. Surrender evokes the unpleasant images of admitting defeat in battle, forfeiting a game, or yielding to a stronger opponent. The word is almost always used in a negative context. Captured criminals surrender to authorities.
In today’s competitive culture we are taught to never give up and never give in—so we don’t hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. We would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship. We are not talking here about a church service—it is the natural response to God’s amazing love and mercy.
I asked my incarcerated TUMI (The Urban Ministry Institute) students to share about what surrender means to them. Here are some of their responses:
- “Giving up of whatever is holding you back from experiencing the Father’s love.”
- “Give up completely. When I surrendered to the authorities, it meant all physical properties, people, and other things such as pets. When I finally surrendered to Jesus, I gave him my whole being—body, mind, soul, and spirit. It took coming to prison to do this. The first surrender [to authorities] was not pleasant, but the second surrender [to Jesus Christ] was the best thing I ever did.”
- “Surrender has many views. I know I have not completely surrendered to Christ. If I did, I wouldn’t have the issues I do have. I continue to this day striving towards complete surrender to Christ so that I will hear from him at the end ‘well done.’ It is my prayer day and night.”
- “I thought multiple times that I had surrendered to Him. The problem was that I would only surrender parts of myself. I prayed for the courage to trust him fully. Slowly, but surely, the things I tried to leave at the foot of the cross and then take back were taken from me. I went from a busy and then confusing piece of artwork to a blank block of clay that God could mold and work with. To get there though, I had to fully surrender to God and His plan. I had to—and choose to—fully surrender, because I trusted Him with my heart. It’s hard to fully worship when I am trying to do things on my own.”
- “Upon my arrest and placement in seclusion for 10 months, I was confronted face-to-face with shame, guilt, and a spiritual reality I had never faced before. Left with a Bible and a lot of quiet time, I read through the Bible cover to cover. I asked God to help guide me to find peace and bring me calmness. Peace comes only when you surrender your heart to Jesus and let Him heal you from the inside out.”
