Live Surrendered

In our common experience, surrender is a loss. It signifies weakness, humiliation, defeat, or captivity. It means that the desired way of life has been taken away and freedom is gone. However, when we consider surrender in terms of turning our lives over to God, we will see that surrender is a gain. Surrender to God is a time of rebirth, renewal, and restoration. Surrender to God is a change of direction that brings new life and new freedom.  

Surrendering to God is a good thing, but that doesn’t mean it is the easiest thing to do. We see this even in the life of Jesus. In the Jordan River, Jesus began his public ministry. In Gethsemane, he begins to bring that ministry to a conclusion. Both are decisions to do the will of God, but as the gospels reveal, the garden experience was an excruciating moment for Jesus. Surrendering to God is a journey, and giving over to God’s will can be a struggle.  

Most of us live some form of a compartmentalized life by making discipleship only one aspect of our lives. We limit the spiritual life to just one part of life, one category on a calendar of events: personal devotions, church activities, and Bible studies. Living like this keeps the will of God out of significant areas of life. However, when we live surrendered, we set out to live a Christ-centered life—a life that sets the will of God at the center and alters our way of living around that will.   

Worship leads to and flows out of a life of surrender. While the act of singing (particularly on Sunday morning or other gatherings) dominates our perceptions of worship, as we read in Romans 12:1-2, worship is much more than singing. Worship is our whole life. The idea of surrender helps us to remember this as we consider what it means to give God every inch of our lives. We desire to embrace worship as a whole-life endeavor in which we exalt God not only in song, but as living sacrifices surrendering all aspects of life to him. 

Watch and listen as Andria Tucker, our Children's Minister, describes Live Surrendered from her experience.