Monday, January 22, 2007

Surrender

I'm giving You my heart, and all that is within. I lay it all down, for he sake of You my King. I'm giving You my dreams, I'm laying down my rights. I'm giving up my pride, for the promise of new life. And I surrender all to You, all...to You.

Surrender. Webster defines it as "the giving up of oneself or a possession to another." When I hear the word "surrender", I automatically think of those war movies where they fly the white flag of retreat. Think about it; at the end of The Patriot, the English general, Cornwallis, surreners to the French. At the end of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese finally surrender to the Americans. Surrender-to give up oneself....to give up hope.

But wait; aren't we supposed to surrender everything to God? And doesn't hope come from God? So how could surrendering mean giving up all hope?

It doesn't.

Shawn McDonald sings "I have tasted a love so wide, that it stops all my time. And I have tasted a love so deep, that it blows my mind." Don't we all crave this, something that will capture our hearts and make time seem to stand still? With the hustle and bustle of life, we seem to lose touch with peace. Webster defines peace as "[a] state of calm and quiet." I have to disagree. That's contentment, which is about a step short of peace.

Someone once described peace to me as "...the world seems right. You know your decisions are right, but only because you know that God is in it. It's a God-given contentment." You know God is in it because you surrender it to God. In Psalm 34:4, David writes "I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears." Isn't David saying that he surrendered to God? By surrendering, you give him complete control. You stop grabbing the pen from the Author to try to write your own story. You give him the blank sheet and pen, and you let Him write your epic tale. Does this mean that your going to pray one night, and *Poof* the very next morning you have all the answers.

Right, as if life were that simple.

No, you may not receive the answers right away; in fact, you may not even get a clear path to where you want to go. But you are giving God the situation and trusting him with what He knows will ultimately benefit you in the end. It's scary yes, but in the end, it's worth it. My gosh, is it worth it!

And I surrender all to you, all...to You.

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