Your greatest battle of all is to surrender all to the Lord your God Almighty. “Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?” (Romans 6:16 AMPC).
The problem isn’t that we are not trying hard enough; rather, we are trying too hard. We wrestle with all our might just so we don’t have to ask the Lord to help us. The reason we don’t want His help, if we are honest, is because we don’t want to surrender to His authority.
Until you surrender your will, you won’t be in His. Jesus prayed, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42 NASB).
You cannot conquer all until you surrender all. If you want to be more than a conqueror then you must have nothing else in your life that you can surrender. The Lord will be everything in you when there is nothing left in you that you can call your own.
The greater the surrender, the greater the victory. “For Your sake we are killed all day long…Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us…[because nothing external to yourself is]…able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:36-39 NKJV).
We struggle holding onto things we should let go of, and we don’t reach out to take hold of things that we really need. It takes more energy to hold on and no energy to let go, yet we imagine we need more strength to do it.
The more surrendered you are, the less striving you will do. “Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him to help you do it, and he will” (Psalm 37:5 TLB).
Recently, I wrote this message to a dear friend of mine: It’s amazing that the easiest thing to do in all the world is to let go, while at the same time, the hardest thing to do in all the world is to let go. Jesus is so patient with us as we struggle with this time and again. We kick ourselves in the butt when we finally do it, knowing we should have done it long before we did.
With Christianity, you’re either all in or you’re not. “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If you truly want to follow me, you should at once completely reject and disown your own life. And you must be willing to share my cross and experience it as your own, as you continually surrender to my ways.’” (Matthew 16:24 TPT).
We imagine ourselves stronger than we really are up until the time we have to surrender our lives to God. Every fiber in our being tells us that we have the right to ourselves. Every whisper from the Spirit of God into your heart says that you belong to God.
When you surrender all, then only the Lord’s victory will remain. “Humble yourselves [with an attitude of repentance and insignificance] in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you [He will lift you up, He will give you purpose]” (James 4:10 AMP).
To surrender all, you must start by surrendering a little. Imagine your life with hundreds of parcels of land, and you currently have the right to them all. Now, pick one parcel of your life and surrender it to God. Deed it over to Him and be determined to never take it back. Then, keep going.
In whatever part of your life you surrender to God, He will give you the victory. “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [making us conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57 AMPC).
Whatever we give to God, He will bless, and whatever we selfishly keep to ourselves, He will not bless. This is as true with our material possessions as it is with every area of our life. The moment you give one area of your life to God, you will see just how much He will bless it.
Whatever you don’t surrender to God stands between you and God. “Now yield and submit yourself to Him [agree with God and be conformed to His will] and be at peace; in this way [you will prosper and great] good will come to you” (Job 22:21 AMP).
We can barely imagine the depth of the surrendering we must do at the beginning. We think we must give up sin when He is really setting us free from it. Sin is the easiest thing to give up because we already know we should not be holding onto it.
There is no sin so small, it doesn’t matter, nor so big that it can’t be forgiven. “Surrender your heart to God, turn to him in prayer, and give up your sins—even those you do in secret. Then you won’t be ashamed; you will be confident and fearless.” (Job 11:13-15 CEV).
The hardest thing to surrender is the idea that, somehow, we can help with the salvation and the sanctification of ourselves. We hold high the trophies of areas we have succeeded in and think ourselves quite the little saviors. But Jesus says we can do nothing apart from Him.
You will do more of God’s work not by striving more but by surrendering more. Jesus said, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5 NLT).
If you want to be more than a conqueror, then you must first be conquered by the Spirit of God. When the Holy Spirit has free reign in you, then the victory will be His. The victory of the saint happens when Christ is ruling in their heart.
Growing in faith is a decision to surrender, not an effort to ascend. “Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps” (Jeremiah 10:23 NIV).
We spend far too much time trying to fix our minds with more knowledge and far too little time asking the Lord to fix our hearts with His power. Get the heart right, and the mind will follow. Let God make you into the man or woman you were meant to be.
The fastest path to Christ is through your heart. “Surrender your heart to God, turn to him in prayer” (Job 11:13 CEV).
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
Very good message. Interesting to read the verse from Corinthians in context; our steadfastness and abounding outlook for our works (which Jesus said should shine forth & cause others to praise the Father) reveal the victorious mindset of Christ we adopt. Scripture also reminds us that we dont wrestle with sin to the point of sweating blood but must count the cost. As with the rich young ruler, in our seeking Him we must face the reality of the hold things/desires have on us. Good reminders of the blinders we accept in our thinking & habits.
Thank you for the good word you posted here. God is so good and His Word is so filled with that goodness!
Our beloved brother Paul, with such heavenly wisdom and incisive insight, you write, “The hardest thing to surrender is the idea that, somehow, we can help with the salvation and the sanctification of ourselves. We hold high the trophies of areas we have succeeded in and think ourselves quite the little saviors. But Jesus says we can do nothing apart from Him.”
True, it most certainly is that unless Christ is saving us from our weak, wanton, and wilful individual selves of wobble, wane, and wreckage, He is not at all our safe Savior and sure Sanctifier, and we shall never alas be saved and sanctified. During the decades, thoroughly and conclusively, I have proven this within the parameters of my personal experience. Christ compassionately doing and continuing doing that which we could never do for ourselves is the Christocentricity and crux of the cross at Calvary and our major model for being moved by the marvel of His magnificence and munificence.
Titus 3:3-8 AMP
3 For we too once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various sinful desires and pleasures, spending and wasting our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared [in human form as the Man, Jesus Christ], 5 He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that we would be justified [made free of the guilt of sin] by His [compassionate, undeserved] grace, and that we would be [acknowledged as acceptable to Him and] made heirs of eternal life [actually experiencing it] according to our hope (His guarantee). 8 This is a faithful and trustworthy saying; and concerning these things I want you to speak with great confidence, so that those who have believed God [that is, those who have trusted in, relied on, and accepted Christ Jesus as Savior,] will be careful to participate in doing good and honorable things. These things are excellent [in themselves] and profitable for the people.
When I write of struggles, it is from the perspective of having gone through them. The surrendering of our effort is harder than it should be. We need the supernatural strength of the Lord to overcome the stubborn strength of our fleshly mind.