I have finished the work which You have
given Me to do. —John 17:4
True surrender is not simply surrender of our
external life but surrender of our will— and once that is done, surrender is
complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet
God never forces a person’s will into surrender, and He never begs. He
patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle
has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.
Surrender for Deliverance. “Come to
Me…and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to
experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for
rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our
will— “Come to Me.” And it is a voluntary coming.
Surrender for Devotion. “If anyone
desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…” (Matthew 16:24). The surrender
here is of my self to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my
being. He says, “If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to
yourself to Me.” And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit
nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned
again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may
be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians
4:19).
Surrender for Death. “…another will gird
you…” (John 21:18; also see John 21:19). Have you learned what it means to
be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an
ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True
surrender is a matter of being “united together [with Jesus] in the likeness of
His death” (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal
to Him.
And after you surrender— then what? Your entire
life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship
and oneness with God.
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