I Surrender
Jeff Deyo

Growing up in the church, the term surrender was used a lot – it was often
mentioned alongside “dying to self,” “picking up our cross,” “less of me, more of
God,” etc. It always seemed like we talked and sung about “surrender” a lot. Even
so, I wonder if I truly understood this foundational Christian principal.

One of the most recent and “popular” appeals to the church to die to self comes to
us indirectly in the song “Heart of Worship,” written by Matt Redman. This song can
be heard in congregations all over the world. Youth and adults alike join together in
this stirring heart’s cry that makes us reflect on the real and true purpose of worship.
Worshipers can be heard in many a small group or large conference belting out the
lyrics, “I’m sorry, Lord for thing I’ve made it [worship], when its all about You, its all
about You, Jesus.”

Whether we realize it or not, Matt leads us in declaring that we have made worship
(and possibly our Christianity) something it isn’t supposed to be—something that is
centered or focused or “about” us—exactly the opposite of what it actually is. The
song suggests that we may have thought more about ourselves and our needs and
wants rather than God and his Kingdom. And this can be especially true when we
approach God or church with a very “needy”, “what cha got for me today, preacha”
attitude instead of approaching him with an “I’m here for You today, God” heart. Our
self-centeredness is also made evident when we whine and complain about things
not going our way or when we constantly wonder “what’s in it for me”!!

In order to understand what it means to “surrender” we have to look to the One who
set the perfect example—Jesus. As I see it, by calling ourselves Christians we have
placed ourselves in a group that strongly desires to be transformed into the likeness
of Christ—in other words, we want to be like him—we want to follow him in every
way. And to be like Christ simply means to do and say what he did. Philippians 2:5-
7 clearly reads, “Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he
was God, he did not demand or cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing;
he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.” (emphasis
added)

That’s amazing! And to think we are often so concerned about our “rights” as
humans. We say things like, “that’s not fair,” or “they can’t do that to me,” or “hey, I
don’t deserve that.” But here, Jesus perfectly models a godly lifestyle (according to
God’s definition) by showing us the freedom that comes when we let go of our rights
instead of clinging to or demanding them.

In verse 9 it goes on to tell us that God honored Jesus greatly for having a humble
attitude and for surrendering his rights. But we often act and think exactly the
opposite from the way Jesus did. We assume in order to gain honor we need to
demand the rights we think we deserve. We think by demanding our rights—even
the rights granted us by law—we are doing something honorable. But God reminds
us that when we humble ourselves and are willing to die to our rights, he will raise us
up (in his way and time) and present to us true honor. It helps me to realize that I
don’t even have the “right” to my next breath or next heartbeat—in reality, we have
NO RIGHTS at all outside of what God gives us. ZERO!!

Matthew 16:24-25 is probably the most popular verse concerning dying to self.
Here, Jesus says, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your
selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for
yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.”
(emphasis added) That’s pretty simple to understand but not as easy to live. Even
so, God demands that we live it if we want to be recognized as a follower of Christ.
Thankfully he provides the strength we need to do this through the power of the Holy
Spirit living inside us. Paul puts it this way in Galatians 2:20. “I myself no longer
live, but Christ lives in me.”

Our problem is we really do want to gain Christ’s life, but without letting lose of our
own. We want both, even though God has said it’s only possible to have one or the
other. He makes it clear that it is impossible to have our life AND Christ’s life. We
will never succeed in holding onto both. We will either lose our life and gain Christ’s,
thereby gaining true life, or we will temporarily gain our life on earth and lose the
chance to have Christ alive in us, thereby forfeiting the blessing of eternal life with
God—and yes, I’m saying we would go to hell.

Surrender always grows out of true humility. In “Jesus, I Surrender,” we sing:
Here at your feet, I’ll always be
With the angels, crying holy
There’s not one thing that means as much to me
As you my God, as you my King

These lines are chock full of humility. For starters, we humble our bodies. The very
act of sitting at someone’s feet denotes meekness. Try it some time. By placing
yourself on the floor by someone’s feet you automatically become vulnerable to
them. You have lowered yourself and allowed them to have position “over” you.
(This is a great way to apologize to someone you’ve wronged—it automatically puts
you in a place that helps someone who is mad at you to hear your repentant heart.)

Also, by aligning ourselves forever with God’s Angels, crying “Holy,” we are
declaring to God before all the universe that we will never try to place ourselves
above God. This was Lucifer’s great sin. He believed that he should be able to be
worshiped as more beautiful and more powerful than God himself. He was filled with
pride, so down he came (Isaiah 14:12-15). By humbling ourselves before God in
body, word and deed, we rightly place him above ourselves.

It’s always “easy” to repeat the next line about how nothing is more important to us
than God, but rarely do we really ponder what this means. When we value
something it shows in our actions. Or better said; our actions show what we value
and how much we value it. And how much we value something can be measured
mostly by two things – how much of our time and money surrounds that thing. My
pastor used to say we could measure our priorities by looking at our check book. He
joked that many of us have made the supermarket our god! The things that matter
are the ones we’ve prioritized. And whether we realize it or not, the amount of time
and money we spend on Kingdom things reveals how much they mean to us. By
promoting godly priorities to the top of our life-lists, we display true desires to
surrender to God’s ways over our own.

Just close your eyes and picture yourself rearranging your priorities. God’s desires
are now at the very top. What he wants is now most important. It’s no longer about
you. You’re no longer consumed with your ways, your plans and your stuff. You
can honestly pray in faith, “More of you, less of me, Lord.” You begin to pick up your
cross daily without fear or regret, because you no longer consider your life your own.
You simply start each day by saying, “Have your way in me today, Lord.”

Jesus paved the way through the ultimate surrender, and thanks to him, most of us
won’t be crucified physically as he was. But ALL OF US DIE a similar death
spiritually. You see, we either die to ourselves NOW (by faith and with Christ), or
God sentences us to eternal death in hell. He gives us a few years on earth to
surrender. But it is when we die that Christ’s Spirit becomes fully alive in us. Again,
Galatians says, “I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ
lives in me.” Romans 7:6 confirms this also saying, “…for we died with Christ, and
we are no longer captive to its [the law’s] power. Now we CAN really serve God, not
in the old way by obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way, by the Spirit.”
(emphasis added)

So, how do we know if we are counted as a part of the group that “died with Christ,”
called Christians? We’ve surrendered our life by faith and stopped living for
ourselves! 2 Corinthians 5:15 says, “He died for everyone so that those who receive
his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please
Christ, who died and was raised for them.” Galatians 6:8 adds, “Those who live only
to satisfy their own sinful desires will harvest the consequences of decay and death.
But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.”

One thing is for sure—God will have things his way. We must become lesser and he
will become GREATER! Plus, surrender is one of the most freeing things we can
do. We’re not in charge. God reigns. He leads we follow. We surrender. And that
equals true freedom.

We need to speak and live out this quote from a national pastor who was later
martyred in Zimbabwe Africa:

"The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made;
I'm a disciple of His! I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My
past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I'm finished
with low living, sight walking, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions,
worldly talking, cheap giving, and dwarfed goals. I no longer need preeminence,
position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops,
recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, depend on His
presence, walk by patience, am uplifted by prayer, and labor with power. That's what
it means to be a disciple of Jesus."

And so, today I pledge to lose my life—to relinquish my rights—to lay down
myself—to live to please Christ through the Spirit, all the while declaring, “Jesus, I
surrender my life—forever!”