Key Text: Romans 8:1-17
Surrender: To relinquish possession or control of something to another because of demand or compulsion
The Biblical picture of surrender is that once we were enemies of God and our lives were at odds with God. We did not submit to Him. We were not surrendered to Him. We were our own masters, doing our own thing, exercising our own will, robbing God of everything He has given to us. Then a miracle happens: We’re born again, and everything changes. John 3:3 …“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
We no longer want to withhold anything from God. We are eager to be totally at His disposal: to do anything He wants at any cost. We want to do it in the power that He supplies, so that in everything He gets the glory. That’s what it means to be saved from the old way. So, the reality of surrender is there, even if the language is not.
The Bible talks about what we should all understand, to be in total or full surrender to Christ.
Luke 14:33: …any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Matthew 10:37: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
Matthew 22:37: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
Philippians 3:7–8: But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.
How can we know if we are fully surrendered, if we are fully loving God with all our heart, if we have renounced everything for Him?
The apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:3 If I give away all I have and if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love, I gain nothing.
If we can actually give our lives and yet not be really loving, not fully surrendered to love, then how easy it is to imagine the many things we do less than the ultimate sacrifice that will not give a sense of assurance.
But the good news is that we can be fully assured of our surrender
So, what do we do? The N.T. makes it clear that God does not want us to live in such fear and uncertainty. He doesn’t want us to lay down our head every night and say, ‘Well, I have no idea whether I was real today or not.’ So what can we do?
Speak The truth of Full Surrender.
Say to Jesus and mean it with as much truthfulness as you can, ‘I love you, Jesus. I love you more than I love anyone or anything.’ Say it. Speak it out: ‘I surrender all other loves as subordinate to you. I ask that if there is any self-deceit in my saying this, you would take it away. At any cost, take it away, and cause me to speak truly and authentically.’
Ask our heavenly Father that He would work the miracle of Romans 8:16 in our life. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
We may be surprised how the verbal, out-loud declaration of your full surrender, full allegiance, and full trust intensifies the very thing you are affirming. John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
Live Out The Truth of Full Surrender.
Act on the godly inclinations that Holy Spirit gives us, which might stretch our competency or confidence so that we have to throw ourself on His mercy and power to help us. Sometimes the miracle is in the stretch
As we live it out, the reality of the surrender becomes more authentic.
Ask For The Gift of Assurance of Full Surrender.
This is the ultimate bottom line: because the confidence that we are acting in full surrender, can always be doubted.
We can’t that feeling go away. The more we focus on telling it to go away, the more we think about it. Nothing we do can make it go away. But He can take it away. ‘The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. Romans 8:16