Have you ever had one of those moments when you felt completely numb? Not comfortably numb, as Pink Floyd famously sang, but a numbness of the heart; a numbness of the soul; a feeling of paralysis.
You knew what you should do, but had no desire or willpower to follow through.
I had one of those moments recently.
I was sitting alone in my office — with the weight of the world on my shoulders and all its knowledge at my fingertips — yet completely lost to myself, hopeless, and depressed.
How could this be?
Pastors are supposed to have all the answers and yet I was without a clue.
What would you have done?
I know what I wanted to do.
What I wanted to do was to avoid, escape, and deny. But I knew very well the roads that those choices had taken me in the past and it was not where I wanted to go.
I was only left with one choice. Without feeling anything, I acted in faith and I chose surrender.
I wish I could say that surrendering is something that I am good at. I wish I could say that, after almost 20 years as a Christian and 16 years as a pastor, I am close to mastering the art of surrender. Unfortunately, while I do understand the science of surrender quite well, the art of it still eludes me.
" Surrendering to God invokes a power greater than ourselves into our hearts. It is both a miracle of grace and mystery, which we will never fully understand, even as we study it throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity."
Why do I distinguish between science and art — between knowledge and application? Because Jesus did.
Once he asked:
“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” (Matthew 21:28–31)
To everyone listening, the answer was obvious. It was the first son.
So, what was Jesus trying to teach us with this story? He was teaching that what you do is more important than what you say.
I am ashamed to admit it, but too often in my own relationship with God I have been more like the second son than the first. I say the right things, but I don’t actually do them.
Even though the first son did not say the right things, he did the right things in the end, and that was what mattered to the father. The fact that the second son never got around to surrendering his life to his father is crystalized by the fact that he never actually did what the father asked him to do.
Surrender is not as mystical as many people would have you to believe. Surrender is actually very simple. It is a willingness to be made willing to obey.
But why can’t we just say surrender is obedience? It is because we cannot always obey, but we can always surrender.
Notice what Paul says about the human nature in Romans 7:
“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:18–24)
As you can see, obedience is not that simple. Paul wants to obey but he can’t obey. The things he wants to do, he doesn’t do, and the things he doesn’t want to do are the things that he does. According to Paul, we are born with a built-in default mode that prevents us from doing the will of God.
Have you noticed that struggle happening in your own life? That was the experience of the second son in Jesus’ story.
Do you see that tendency in your own life?
On some level, we may want to do what is right, but we never get around to doing it. We never reach a point of desperation where we throw up our hands and cry for deliverance. We are content to continue our lives as keyboard warriors on social media, without actually doing anything.
It is a lot easier to be outraged than it is to surrender. It is easier to point a finger at an offender rather than pick up the cross of a victim by relieving their suffering and ministering to their pain. But this is exactly what Jesus modeled throughout His life and what He offers to us through His death, burial, and resurrection. He said:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)
Appealing as this sounds, what does it actually mean?
I think we all understand what rest is. But the rest that Jesus offers is much greater than physical rest. It is emotional and spiritual rest.
Rest for our souls can only be equated to the peace that passes all understanding. It is a peace that the world cannot give. It is a peace that we cannot earn through our achievements. It is peace that can only be received as a gift.
However, according to Jesus, this peace has a condition. What is that condition?
It is surrender.
It is only by surrendering to the yoke of Christ that we can experience the peace of Christ.
And this is the amazing thing — as we become yoked to Him our burden is lifted, and He begins to bear the weight of it for us. In essence, we are freed from the numbness of our meaningless existence and are given a reason to live that far exceeds what we can even hope and dream of.
Thus, the sin dwelling in us that has prevented us from seeing beyond ourselves, from climbing to the heights of our human potential, from truly feeling alive, is now replaced with a new power. Paul calls this power, the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:2).
In other words, surrendering to God invokes a power greater than ourselves into our hearts. It is both a miracle of grace and mystery, which we will never fully understand, even as we study it throughout the ceaseless ages of eternity.
But while we may never fully understand the mystery, the only thing preventing us from experiencing it is our own will.
Paul said it this way:
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13)
What does this mean?
According to our study thus far, what is our work? It is surrender. We must be willing to be made willing. Once we are willing to be made willing, what happens next?
God works!
He works in you both to will and to do what He has asked you to do. The will of the Father is carried out — not by us, but through us.
Thus, the art of surrender can only be learned through practice.
It is like learning to play piano or golf.
We can watch and listen to people play all day long. We can learn all the theory. We can buy the best equipment, dress in the proper attire, and still know nothing about it. We might be able to fool people who have never played before, but when in the presence of people who actually have experience, we will be exposed as posers in a matter of minutes.
Christians who only understand the science of surrender but not the art of surrender, are nothing but posers.
Jesus saved his strongest condemnation for those, like me, who have tended to identify with the second son more than the first.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21–23)
As you can see, it all comes back to knowing God and God knowing us.
If we know Him, we will be saved by Him. If we don’t know Him, we won’t.
And the only way we can know Him is through surrender.
There is no substitute for surrender that will stand in the judgment.
To be ready for Jesus, we must be surrendered to him. It is that simple.
The book of Revelation describes this group of surrendered children of God in the last days as the 144,000.
For this article, we won’t get caught up in the argument of whether this number is literal or symbolic. For all intents and purposes, it doesn’t matter, as long as we understand that it encompasses all the living faithful of the last generation.
What is important, though, is how Revelation describes them:
“Then I looked, and behold, a Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him one hundred and forty-four thousand, having His Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, and like the voice of loud thunder. And I heard the sound of harpists playing their harps. They sang as it were a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures, and the elders; and no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who were redeemed from the earth… These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. (Revelation 14:1–4 NKJV)
Think about it. All heaven is present in this picture, but only the 144,000 are singing. Why?
It is because they are singing a song that cannot be taught or learned by anyone else.
It is a song of experience.
It is a song sung from the depths of a knowledge of God that is unique only to them and the experience they went through as the world fell apart around them. They alone stood up for God when the world was bowing down to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16).
Their song was the finished product of learning the art of surrender here on earth.
It is an art we can all learn— starting today. We must only be willing to be made willing.
Do not let your past failings discourage you. Remember, I am in the same boat you are in. We are all on a journey together. None of us have arrived yet, but the destination is right before us if we would but keep our heads lifted high.
Jesus is coming soon!
I want to conclude by sharing a quote from one of my favorite books, Steps to Christ, written by Ellen G White. In chapter 5 (p. 47–48) she writes:
Many are inquiring, “How am I to make the surrender of myself to God?” You desire to give yourself to Him, but you are weak in moral power, in slavery to doubt, and controlled by the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and resolutions are like ropes of sand. You cannot control your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. The knowledge of your broken promises and forfeited pledges weakens your confidence in your own sincerity, and causes you to feel that God cannot accept you; but you need not despair. What you need to understand is the true force of the will. This is the governing power in the nature of man, the power of decision, or of choice. Everything depends on the right action of the will. The power of choice God has given to men; it is theirs to exercise. You cannot change your heart, you cannot of yourself give to God its affections; but you can choose to serve Him. You can give Him your will; He will then work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. Thus your whole nature will be brought under the control of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be centered upon Him, your thoughts will be in harmony with Him.
Desires for goodness and holiness are right as far as they go; but if you stop here, they will avail nothing. Many will be lost while hoping and desiring to be Christians. They do not come to the point of yielding the will to God. They do not now choose to be Christians.
Through the right exercise of the will, an entire change may be made in your life. By yielding up your will to Christ, you ally yourself with the power that is above all principalities and powers. You will have strength from above to hold you steadfast, and thus through constant surrender to God you will be enabled to live the new life, even the life of faith.
Amen.
Call to Action
Will you surrender your life to God, right now?
Will you choose to be a follower and friend of Christ today?
All scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
