What is Surrender?
noun
acceptance of despair
a verbal act of admitting defeat
the delivery of a principal into lawful custody
the act of surrendering
verb
give up or agree to forego to the power or possession of another;
relinquish possession or control over;
relinquish to the power of another; yield to the control of another
Spiritual Surrender
To surrender in spirituality and religion means that a believer completely gives up his own will and subjects his thoughts, ideas, and deeds to the will and teachings of a higher power. It may also be contrasted with Submission. Surrender is willful acceptance and yielding to a dominating force and their will.
In Christianity: the first main principle of surrender is "Dying to Self", or the "emptying of self" to allow Christ to live through the believer
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
(Phl 1:21)
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col 3:3)
The second issue of surrender in Christianity is allowing Christ to "take our place" through the believer, in other words, the emptying of self so that God may live through the believer as evidenced in Phl 1:21
Another principle central to the Christian concept of surrender is the concept of surrender to God's Will. Surrendering to God's will entails both the "surrender of our will to His in macrocosm", in which His plan prevails over man's and the adversary, and secondarily to the surrender of one's will for individual life to "His will for our personal lives in microcosm." This is done through the emptying or dying of self, the "putting self aside" in favor of divine influence. This includes the idea of surrendering to a call. The corollary of this personal surrender is obedience, and obedience to God is denoted as bringing about His will, having lasting effects, and often associated with earthly and divine blessings.
Surrender is also noted in Christian doctrine as one of the three columns of victorious living, or Christian victory: the Blood of the Lamb [Christ], their Testimony of the Word of God [Scriptures] and their lives, and Loving not their lives to death.
The Christian Flag, which represents all of Christendom, has a white field, with a red Latin cross inside a blue canton. In conventional vexillology, a white flag is linked to surrender, a reference to the Biblical description Jesus' non-violence and surrender to God's will.
Note: Surrendering to God's is not found in the Bible. The word "surrender" only pertains to the wars and enemies. As interesting as this is, it is certainly implied throughout the Bible to Do His Will, and Serve Him. From time to time we will see things that are not mentioned in the Bible. Often it may be because of some factor that is OK in one sense,however if misunderstood, it may turn into a sin. Or in this case, I want to point out that a lot of Christians flip the surrendering to God as a method of being lazy, doing nothing, and literally halting their growth in Christ and witnessing to others. there's also the fact that there is a lot of the English language that just does not represent the meanings before the translations.
Surrender Daily
- When we look at the definition of "surrender", it's no wonder we Satan has been able to use the word to keep people away from God. At first glance, surrender represents a weakness and portrays a sense of failure. but as we look deeper into the study of surrender, we find that it is the exact opposite. Surrendering to the Power of Christ is something that helps us obtain the highest strength and develops an even greater success than we could ever imagine.
Surrender Daily
It's all about getting yourself out of the way so that God can do a lot more thru us. When we get ourselves out of the way and Surrender Daily to God's Will, we can move forward in a manner that Christ wants us to move. Here is a simple prayer of surrender:
Lord Jesus, I come to Your Throne of Glory to serve You.
I surrender my life to You, for Your will to be done.
Teach me Lord how to be a better servant for the Kingdom,
teach me how to put myself aside and live every day for You.
I surrender my actions to You, I surrender every day to You,
I surrender all to You. Amen
Stubborn people don't surrender to the strength of God. Selfish people don't surrender, Greedy people don't surrender, angry people, bitter people, egotistical people, pharisees, and the list goes on of the people that have the mentality of not surrendering to God's will. I think you can see the pattern, If we look at the other end of the spectrum, humble people surrender, peaceful people surrender, obedient people, grateful people, wise people, and the list goes on of the types of people that do surrender. It's a choice, and it's a decision. Decide you must, serve God or serve man, sitting on the fence is not surrendering to God's will.
Christ Surrendered
The supreme act of surrender which we are called to emulate is the surrender of Christ; first as coming into the world as God incarnate and second, from the surrender to the Cross in the act of sacrificial atonement, breaking the curse of sin and death from the fall of man.
Phl 2:7-8
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of men:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself,
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Luke 22:42
Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me:
nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
We are to surrender ourselves to His will completely and until we completely surrender to Christ daily, we will never experience the full magnitude of His glorious powers and abilities. It is only when we surrender completely in our actions and attitudes on a moment by moment basis that we will be able to have the ultimate balance of love, peace, understanding, and joy in our lives. The surrender we do, we do for Him, and we surrender to Him, and we surrender because we love Him. This again is a choice that we make not because we have to, we make this choice because we want to!
Surrender is Victory
Surrender to His will is the acceptance of His power, His drive, His will, His ways, His energy, His everything. If we are really truly going to surrender to Christ, we need to understand that He is calling us to surrender, and that also means that He is going to be asking us to DO many things to serve Him. Some of the things He may ask of us, we may not want to do. We may not want to witness to people, we may not want to tithe properly, we may not want to do a lot of the things He is asking of us. But when we are truly surrendering, we are truly going to obey His will.
Most people really do try to surrender daily, and most people really don't truly surrender everything daily. Maybe that's why it's not mentioned in the Bible the way all Christians proclaim it. If you don't surrender some particular thing, it might not necessarily be a sin, and other times in the form of tithing, it would be robbing God. surrendering is probably one of the most difficult elements to accept, but with help from the Holy Spirit, we can!
It really is a desire of God for you to surrender your will to be His will and the better we can develop these practices, the more blessed we will become. Work on it, pray for it, allow God to lead you into the surrendering He wants from you. Listen to Him, and when You hear Christ asking of you, be obedient with joy. This is one of the deepest growths in Christ that you could ever experience, true surrender brings true fulfilment.
