Victory In Surrender

Have you ever sincerely prayed, “Lord, your will be done.” and when God answered your prayer, you found yourself saying….nooooooooooo!I changed my mind. I find myself there now.

 

Jason, my oldest has been job hunting. Time for a change. Time to move up the corporate ladder. He’s great at what he does. Awesome work ethic. Team player. He brings the best out of those around him. I could go on, but I’m beginning to sound like one of those boring, proud mamas. Which I admit, I am.

 

But now that God has answered with a job in Michigan, I find myself saying, noooooooooo! Florida is a long way from Michigan. And I want him and the grand babies and of course, his precious wife, close enough to enjoy. Especially since there will be two grand babies soon!

 

I find my conversation going something like “Lord, do you know how far it is to Michigan?”

 

But I find His conversation going something along the lines of surrender. He’s even repeated that word and others like it more than once.

 

I heard Him the first time, but I don’t like that word…surrender. I have my own plans, my own dreams, my way…surrender to His will isn’t congruent with any of my plans.

Surrender or fight?

Surrender or pout?

Surrender?

But God…and my flood of excuses begin.

 

There are some things about surrender we need to realize to make the process easier. I guess I’ve watched too many Westerns growing up, but when I think of surrender I see a cowboy that has run out of bullets, waving a white flag trying to save his hide.

 

Surrender is choosing the lesser of two evils.

Surrender is synonymous with defeat.

But, in the biblical sense, it’s victory.

 

It is choosing good instead of evil. The difficult part of surrender comes into the picture because the good is not always the easy. We live in a culture that wants the easy over the good and we’re paying for that choice on many levels.

 

To really understand biblical surrender we need to understand and trust Whom we are surrendering to: Romans 8:32 “Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?”

 

When we realize God is asking us to surrender to His will because He loves us and wants only what is best for us, then surrender is easier.

When we understand even just a little of what God is like, when we begin to understand His nature, we gasp in awe-“oh”! Add that “o” that escapes our lips to the word God and we have a word that describes his nature-good!

 

God you are good all the time and in every way. If it’s not good, then it didn’t come from you. We seem to get things confused.

 

The Devil is evil and God is Good! Not the other way around. Because God is good I can trust Him enough to surrender to Him. I can submit my will to Him because He is trustworthy.

 

I can surrender to God because:

• He sees what I am unable to see.
• His plans are better than mine.
• He always has my best at heart.
• I can trust Him, because He is good.

 

Surrendering to Him means I choose to line up my choices, my actions and my attitudes with His Word even when I can see an easier, or what feels like a better way.

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Submit or surrender to God and resist the devil.

 

Often we find ourselves flip flopping the instructions we resist God and submit to the devil. Wrong game plan with devastating results.

Remember devil evil; God good. If we can keep that truth in our focus we will walk in paths of peace instead of turmoil.

That means I can walk in peace…yes, and even enjoy the journey, even when I don’t get my way–because His way is better.

 

Thank you, God! Your plans are bigger than mine. Your plans are better than mine. I want what you’ve got in your hand, not what I’ve got in my box!

 

Jenny, Jason’s wife, has a sister in the same town where they will be moving. She has twins on the way so the cousins will have a great time together and Jenny’s mom is less than an hour away! And they are a wonderful, wonderful family. I know they’ll love it there! And I love them enough to surrender them to God’s plan for their lives.