What does the word surrender mean to you?
We can surrender lots of things. In competition, surrender means that you give up. In relationships, we usually think of it as letting someone else win an argument.
Can it mean more than that? What if it is an attitude that encompasses a vast array of things?
What exactly is sweet surrender?
Obedience is only the beginning of sweat surrender. As you fully surrender the details of your life, you will see God working in everything, and it will be welcomed by you.
We all come into this world somewhat oblivious to God. When we come to trust in Jesus as our Savior, we want to do what God wants us to do. We may still have an independent streak. When faced with what God wants versus what we want, we may still have a hard time choosing what God wants. We have a hard time seeing it as the best. If we continue to grow our relationship with the Lord, we come to a point of dependence as we realize that our Father in heaven really does know best.
Fully surrendered can be broken down to acknowledgment, acceptance, and application or response.
When we think of Jonah in the Bible, we tend to think of a hardheaded prophet that God finally persuaded to obey via a journey in the belly of a fish. He surrendered and went to Nineveh.
If the story stopped right there, you might think that he provides a great example of what to do. He acknowledged God’s plan. He accepted the mission. He responded by going.
Now let’s look deeper.
Perhaps God only gave him one sentence. After all, that was his entire sermon.
And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.
Jonah 3:4
They repented.
And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.
Jonah 3:10
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.
Jonah 4:1
Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry? So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
Jonah 4:4-5
Jonah did not get his way, and he was mad. If he were really surrendered to the will of God, what God wanted would have been the most important thing to Jonah. He should have rejoiced that the whole city repented.
The journey in the belly of the fish brought his feet into surrender, but his heart did not follow.
LIFE APPLICATION
Key Focal Verse:
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
1 Peter 1:7
Today’s challenge is to acknowledge God’s will for you. Accept everything that happens to you as sent by God or allowed by God. Look for the blessing. Draw closer to God. Apply and respond from God’s perspective as best you can understand it. Put your heart into it.