Surrender (2)
When we start to do things God’s way instead of our own, we experience three great benefits. First, we have peace: ‘Submit to God, and you will have peace; then things will go well for you.’ (Job 22:21 NLT) Second, we have freedom: ‘...I will live in freedom, because I… follow your orders.’ (Psalm 119:45 NCV) Third, we have power: ‘...submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.’ (James 4:7 NKJV) Stubborn temptations and overwhelming problems are defeated by Christ the moment we surrender. As Joshua approached the walls of Jericho he encountered God, fell down and worshipped, surrendered his plans and said, ‘What does my Lord say to His servant?’ (Joshua 5:14 NKJV) Joshua’s surrender led to a spectacular victory. It sounds like a contradiction to say: victory comes through surrender! But surrender doesn’t weaken us, it strengthens us. Surrendered to God, we don’t have to fear surrendering to anything else.
William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, ‘The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.’ Eventually everybody surrenders to something. If not to God, we’ll surrender to the opinions and expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, to our own lusts or ego. We’re free to choose whatever we surrender to, but we’re not free from the consequences of that choice. E. Stanley Jones said, ‘If you don’t surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos.’ The supreme example is Jesus. The night before His crucifixion He surrendered to God’s plan, saying basically this: ‘I want Your will, not Mine.’ And He is our example!