Surrendering All

 Surrender. When it is all said, when efforts have been exhausted and laid to rest, the time comes to make a choice. That, is a conscious decision to let go of tiresome self-made efforts, hours of human reasoning, numerous checklists that in our minds have far more positives than negatives for doing things our way, and finally releasing that insatiable desire to control and make a specific outcome happen. It is time to relinquish power without giving up hope. Time to give this hold on your life over to someone else who can and will do what is best for you. His name is Jesus.

Possibly, your thoughts go something like this: "Sure, I believe the Bible. I know the "Greats" of scripture had miraculous things to happen in their lives and were assigned tasks that only God could perform through them, but that is not my life. After all, God has never spoken to me in a dream that I would rule over, much less save a country, as He did with Joseph. Nor has He asked me to lead a minuscule number of men into battle and then give me a landslide victory as He did with Gideon. I haven't been asked to lead an army of wayward and fickle people to overtake an enemy territory as God used Joshua to do. As for the idea of burning wet wood on the altar, as Elijah did with so much at stake, I'm not sure I have that kind of faith.

Am I right? Do such thoughts cross your mind? You will feel a bit perplexed today if you look at these God-ordained happenings through human understanding. Most likely the calling God places on your life today won't resemble these Biblical examples, but what if God used the common element that transcends time to work mightily in your life as He did in the lives of these great men. The common element is surrender. It is still relevant, and the mere mention of it draws us to God for those areas in our lives where we need to do just that and surrender struggles that we do not have the strength or knowledge despite our well-meaning efforts to fix.

What would you have to surrender or give over to God if you genuinely asked God to save your marriage, restore your health, solve severe problems at your job, or mend broken relationships? Surrender. Merely give the problem over to God, let it fall from your hands to His, and refuse to pick it back up. Continuing to live by His word, trusting that He will work out His purpose for such things in His time, whether it is sooner or later. Remember the great men of faith like Joseph, Joshua, Gideon, and Elijah, who did not receive answers immediately. For some, it was almost a lifetime of waiting. With the waiting, sweet, simple trust was built day by day.

As a young woman of 23, I stood over the grave of my husband of almost five years. During our time of marriage, we had battled his bouts with alcoholism that affected every area of our life together. I remember feeling so helpless during that time of marriage because nothing in my strength could fix our daily problems. Reaching the end of my rope with our relationship, ready to end it and let the consequences fall where they may, I decided to take the more difficult path and honor my commitment to him and, most importantly, to God. I chose to run to God and not away from Him as I sat at our dining room table alone one spring morning, wholly broken before the Lord. In prayer, I gave our hurting marriage to God. I vowed to allow Him to work in my husband's life as well as in mine to restore our life together and end my husband's problem with alcohol.

I realized the enemy was not my husband. He had so many good qualities. It was the hold alcohol placed upon him to keep him from being all that he could be for God and our family. After that day, I never said another audible word about it. I did not share my commitment to the Lord with him. I just let God work. No more arguments, hard feelings, or attempts to make things work as I thought they should. It wasn't my strength that I began to live in. It was the strength of my Savior.

During the time that followed, there were seasons of promise and seasons of great storms that were rougher than before I released the problem to the Lord. I did not withdraw my encouragement, support, or faithfulness to him; I just quit trying to fix him. I continued to stand on the promise that God would be our deliverer, even though I did not know what that would look like. 

After almost five years together, He lost the battle, and on July 11, 1988, due to the decision to continue to abuse alcohol at the age of 25 years, he passed away. Though I grieved for His decision, knowing what he could have become, I also knew that I had given this all into God's hands with no stipulations for the outcome because I was merely powerless to solve this problem. I experienced a covering of peace that was unexplainable. I am sure to this day it had everything to do with my willingness to finally let all my efforts go and trust the One who loved us both more than we could ever love each other. Though the outcome was not what I wanted, and it hurt, I believed God could still be trusted.

That was over thirty years ago, and many trials have crossed my path since that time in my life. I have seen the faithfulness of God time and time again, whether the results were what I hoped for or not. God can be trusted if we only surrender "all of it," whatever that might be, to His leading in our lives. So what about you? Most likely, your heart has revealed an area within your life that calls for surrender. It may be a big or small issue, but that does not matter. All of our struggles are important to the Father, and He is waiting to show Himself in the battle and lead you through according to His plan if only you will surrender and turn it over to God with no stipulations. That seems risky. What if it doesn't end the way we want it to, as was my case. Regardless of the outcome, friend, and independence from all the fixing and manipulating of the situation we attempt, God is God, and His will is always the last word and the outcome. In joining Him, trusting that He knows what is best for us through our lives, we will see the blessings and rewards of surrendering to Him.

"Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him..." Psalm 37:7 ​