As I’ve been thinking further about this idea of surrender, the more convinced I am that it’s a choice:
- A deliberate act of the soul and will.
- A purposeful selection of the preferred alternative.
- A conscious decision for the better option.Surrender is a choice–completely voluntary.
It’s willful and active.
- It doesn’t happen by osmosis.
- It doesn’t happen by evolution.
- It doesn’t happen by chance.
- We don’t stumble upon or fall into surrender.
We choose it.
And we choose it over an alternative.
- In battle, generals choose surrender over the further killing of their troops.
- In manhunts, criminals surrender to avoid the prospect of being shot by police.
- In chess, the losing opponent surrenders his king instead of playing into what is certain defeat.
- For us, we surrender to God and His ways (when we actually choose to do so) often because the alternative holds little hope or promise.
Think about the Israelites under Joshua after they entered the Promised Land when they were about the renew their covenant with God. Joshua gave them the choice: if you don’t like God’s ways, choose another — go ahead and serve the Amorites if you’d rather.
It’s a choice:
Joshua 24:13-16 (NIV)
14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.
15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
16 Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods!
I’m convinced we face the same choice every day, each hour and minute of the day.
Choose this day whom you will serve.
Choose this day to whom you will surrender.
- Will I surrender to my emotions or to the God who made me and knows my heart?
- Will I surrender to my circumstances or to the God who reigns over them?
- Will I surrender to my fear of the unknown or to the God who knows and sees it all?
- Will I surrender to my desire to control things (an illusion anyway), or to the God who really does control all things?
- Will I surrender to my wants or to the God who knows my wants, and my needs, and provides for them still?
The bottom line is this: I do surrender everyday, but the question is, to what or whom?
I voluntarily put myself into the control of someone or something: sometimes myself, sometimes my thoughts or emotions, sometimes other people’s expectations, sometimes others’ needs. In each case, I surrender.
Choose this day (this moment, this hour) whom you will serve (or surrender to).
It’s a deliberate act of the mind, heart, and soul.
- Will I choose myself (knowing how bad for me I can be) or God and His always-good ways?
- Will I choose lies (like “I have to perform to be loved”) or Truth (God loves me because it’s His nature to love)?
- Will I choose the world’s rules, which only want to use me, chew me up, and spit me out, or will I choose the ways of the Kingdom, a place where I have value, worth, and dignity simply because I’m a child of the King.
As the Israelites cried, so I cry, “Far be it from [me] to forsake the Lord and serve other gods.”
The other gods are impostors and users and liars anyway.
Why surrender to them, when I can surrender to the real thing?
‘Til next time,
Joan
