Committing to Surrender

I learned a long time ago that you should never surrender. Whether that was during a game with my siblings, at a job I hated, or even going to sleep at night, I was always adamant about doing it on my own terms or being taken prisoner, rather than submitting. This stance is in complete opposition to Jesus, who will never take me prisoner and will patiently wait for me to surrender.

I have found letting go of my “right to win” and exercising my “right to surrender” to be extremely difficult. I love Jesus and I desire for Him to be the Lord of my life. In many things, I have received Him as sovereign and aligned my will with His. In other areas, not so much. I find this very frustrating, especially when I know I need Jesus to rule in my life and to help me flee from sin. Jesus
won’t force me to let go of my sin. It has to be my choice. So what is the solution?

Choosing to let go of a sin habit isn’t the only choice that has to be made. I have found that I also have to choose to commit to surrender to Jesus. Let me say that again: choose to commit to surrender to Jesus.

1) Choose to – choosing means that I make a conscious decision of my own free will

2) Commit to – committing to the choice means that I agree to take on the responsibilities of the choice

3) Surrender to Jesus – surrendering means I will yield to Jesus’ power and will in my life

That all sounds very profound, but what does it look like and how is it done? Steps one and two are done before a temptation for sin occurs. A conscious choice about committing to surrendering has to be made – in other words, you make the decision that you will choose to yield to Christ instead of choosing to sin. This decision is made in advance so that when the moment of temptation comes, you will already be in the mindset of resisting it. At that time, make the conscious choice to yield to Jesus. This may be praying for Him to take over your thoughts, meditating on Scriptures, or physically removing yourself from the temptation. For me, this means literally saying to Jesus (silently or out loud), “I surrender my will to Yours.”  

The more I do this, the easier it becomes. I’m by no means a master of surrender yet, but with Christ’s help, I will be able to submit myself to God and resist the devil (sin) James 4:7.