Surrender

“Then He said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.’” Luke 9:23

One of my favorite parts about meeting new people is getting to hear pieces and parts of their story. I love to hear the thrill in someone’s voice when they talk about the things they are passionate about, like a geographical location, population, or even a hobby, such as rock climbing or sailing. I enjoy hearing the details of one’s favorite adventure stories or most memorable moments. And most of all, I delight in hearing about every person’s path that led them to this point in life, or more specifically, their journey with Christ.  

Over the past few months, I have had the privilege of meeting so many new people face-to-face, many of whom are my Brothers and Sisters in Christ. As I listened to many share their stories, I noticed a commonality that ran through many of their faith journeys…and I know that it’s a big part of my testimony as well. 

Surrender. 

So many individuals spoke about how they had grown up in the church and checked all the boxes off of the religious ‘to-do’ list, but it wasn’t until later on that their relationship with Christ became personal (Jn 3:16). There were others who had come to Christ later on in life, but they were still holding onto their own identity until more recently when they officially surrendered it to Christ and put on a ‘new self’ (Eph. 4:24). And then there were others, who could recall an event of ‘coming to Christ’ or ‘raising their hand at church’, yet their lives didn’t see a transformation until many years down the road when they denied themselves and took up their cross (Lk 9:23). 

Perhaps you can relate or maybe you have a story of your own in which you can distinguish that moment that you surrendered your life to Christ. 

This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the town where I used to live in North Carolina. Fresh out of college, I took a job in a new city and a new state, and after a few weeks spent exploring Europe, I packed up my car and headed to live with my aunt for the start of a new chapter. Four years prior to this move I had raised my hand to accept Christ into my life at a church camp and from there, I had headed into my college career. Throughout those four years spent in school, my heart desired to know Christ more and to live my life for Him, but in departing for college and leaving behind the only Christian community that I knew, I just simply didn’t know how to follow Christ.  By the time I moved to North Carolina, I was ready to give God “His chance”.   

Last week, as I drove the roads of what had once been home, I passed by the very spot where I remember telling God something to this extent. 

“Okay, God. I’m in a new place. I don’t know anybody or anything. I have to work three days a week, but outside of that, I give you my time to show me what this is all about. You have one year, and then I’m going to be a travel nurse.” 

Yes. I can still hear God laughing as I type out those words, but in all reality, if there is one part of that quote that I am positive is written word for word, it’s the last sentence. “You have one year God, and then we’re back on my time.” Little did I know that God would accept my challenge and then rewrite the story that I had written for myself. 

As I drove past the place where I remember saying these words, I smiled in knowing that this spot marked my moment of surrender to the Lord. Now, you might read my words and think, “You didn’t really surrender anything, but the free time that you had and that was probably just because you didn’t have anything else to fill it with at the time.” Let me tell you, you aren’t wrong. But let me also tell you that God used this little surrender to lead to a greater surrender. The small surrender of my free, undistracted time that was without competition, actually turned into surrender of my schedule and ultimately, my control.

I will be the first to tell you that my schedule was my idol. You could have never caught me without my planner and a pen. I had every hour of every day mapped out to a tee from studying and practice to chores and dinner plans. In fact, it meant so much to me that my mom’s favorite gift to give me every Christmas was my new planner for the new year – so exciting, right? Needless to say, my life evolved around that spiral bound book. 

When I surrendered my free time to God, I had also indirectly surrendered my schedule to Him. Instead of starting each morning by checking my planner, I rolled over to open His Word. Instead of my list of priorities filling my days, I began listening for Him to direct my steps. Instead of chasing my own desires, I began to crave the things of God. Instead of finding satisfaction in a list with every box checked at the end of the day, I grew content in spending my time as led by the Lord. 

Now a few years down the road, and I can’t even tell you what I’ll be doing at this time next week. I have no idea where the Lord will lead and honestly, every time that I begin to seek the next steps for myself, I feel the Lord say, “Just wait. Trust me. I already have it planned out.” 

Believe me. There are many times when I take control into my own hands or as I like to say, I reach over and grab the steering wheel. The desire to plan and to write out a to-do list just to see it as successfully completed at the end of the day is still within me. I have also found that over time, there have been other pieces and parts of my life that God has asked me to surrender, such as my identity in the work world and sometimes even the passions that I greatly feel are from Him, like my heart for medical missions. Do I want to be on the mission field today? Yes. But I know and trust that His ways are higher than my ways, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and His timing is always better than that of my own. 

Jesus himself instructs us to deny ourselves and to take up our cross daily. He knows that our flesh remains, that the things we surrendered yesterday, may feel back in our control or on our playing field today. 

Friend. I want to encourage you to surrender to the Lord today. I want to encourage you to identify whatever it is that you are holding on to, to let it go, and to instead use your hands to grab onto the cross of Christ. 

Can you look back and see that distinguishable moment of surrender on your walk with Christ? Have you continued in a daily surrender? Perhaps He has had His way with that which you originally surrendered and is asking you to surrender something completely different today; something much bigger or maybe something much smaller, and more personal. 

Maybe you are reading this today and you have never come to that moment of surrender. Dear reader, I want to encourage you to take that step today.

Scripture tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) and that the wages of this sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23). Therefore, if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9). 

I want to end by drawing your attention to the phrase found within Romans 10:9. “Jesus is Lord.” This is different than proclaiming Jesus as the Savior of the world. He, indeed, is the Savior of the world. He has died for the sins of the world. That is truth. But to proclaim Him as Lord, is where that surrender ties in. To proclaim Him as Lord means to deny yourself, to take yourself out of the center of your life, and to fill that spot with the Lord Jesus and to walk forward with Him at the heart of your life. 

God didn’t want my free time or my planner, those were just the ancillary effects… He wanted my surrender and He wants your surrender too. Looking back now, I can see that this surrender marked the time when I became more aware of the Holy Spirit within me and it was the beginning of my true transformation for Christ. 

Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him today in whatever way that looks like for you personally. I will tell you first hand, that the adventure that I have been on with the Lord over the past four years is much more exhilarating than any adventure I have planned for myself in the past or any that I could imagine for the future. 

Enjoy the ride.