Are You Brave Enough to Surrender Your Way to Freedom?

For so many years I was in survival mode. Surrendering seemed like threat to my well-being. I knew how to fight; but to be still, to surrender to God, to release my control seemed like giving up. I was not about to do that! However, if I wanted the life I was craving, I needed to do the most frightening, yet bravest thing: surrender. Through surrendering, I finally experienced what it meant to be alive in Christ and see the freedom that comes from surrender. Maybe you are in the trenches of the fight facing mountains of unanswered questions, including “Where are you God?” Like me, maybe the way to the freedom you long for is through surrender.

The Bravest Prayer

One of my favorite books to reflect upon is Mark Batterson’s Circle Maker. When I initially read it, I was in a season of needing direction. I was fearful if I took one direction over another that I would do the wrong thing and fall on my face. I picked up Batterson’s book for encouragement. The one component that has stuck with me throughout the years is his question: “What’s the bravest prayer you can pray?” My heart skipped a beat when I read this. My mind went into overdrive, and I began to think about all things that could happen if I prayed the bravest prayer for me. In the end, I resigned myself to pray my bravest prayer, “I give up. I surrender all.”

I did not realize how much of my body, heart, and mind were enmeshed with my need to control until I prayed that prayer. All of me wanted to hold onto everything while the other part of me desperately wanted someone else to hold onto those things. It was an internal tug of war. But this prayer won minute after minute, day after day, until it became a way of living, a way to freedom.

To live out the freedom God desires for us, it will require us to surrender. These next steps will help prepare our hearts and minds for the bravery needed to surrender and embrace the freedom Christ has for us.

Steps for Brave Surrender

1)        Willingness

Webster defines willingness as “the quality or state of being prepared to do something.”  We could have all the steps, tricks, and tools, but if we are not prepared (willing) to surrender, we won’t.

There is no magic formula for being willing to do something either. It is often a battle of “wills” within us: the will to hold on to whatever it is we think we need and the will to let go. Whichever wins out is what we are prepared to do. However, the Psalmist reminds us this: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a wiling spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12).  

David’s words show us that “willingness” to do what is right, necessary, and holy is not easy. He penned them after Nathan confronted him about his own affair with Bathsheba. A man after God’s on heart had to release his own will to receive and walk in the will of the Father. In many ways we are called to do the same: release our own will to follow God’s will so that he may sustain us.

2)        Identifying what to surrender

Once we have a willingness to surrender, we can move to more clarity for what we need to surrender. For each person this may look different. There is no exhaustive list for what we may be called to surrender; however, here are few examples: our heart, finances, time, talents, dreams, marriage, children, and, overall, our lives.

Most of us have an idea of what we need to surrender because it is causing us the most angst. It is why there feels like a tug-o-war is happening within us. For some of us, we know something is “off,” but we can’t place it. For others, we may simply need to be sure our heart posture is correct, and surrender is how we gauge that. Regardless of which category we may fall into, David gives us some insight for identifying what to surrender.

Psalm 37:4-7 walks us through a process of identifying what our desires are and then what to do with them. First, we are called “Trust in the Lord to do good…” He will supply our needs when we surrender all. He is good and desires good for us. Next, as we trust in the Lord to give us our desires, we are called to “Commit your way to the Lord…” Those very desires God has given us, we are called to return to commit (surrender) back to him. Finally, we are called to be “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for the Lord to act.”  In God’s time, the desires of our heart will be delivered for his glory and purpose.

3)        The act of surrender

Although we may be willing and have identified what to surrender, doing it is another issue. It is often difficult and even may result in a grieving process. Through our tears, our heartache, our “Where are God?” moments, we may feel our ways were much better than whatever He is doing. Yet in these hard moments, we, like David, can ask the Lord to examine our hearts so that we may endure the surrender and move forward in His ways.

David requests of the Lord, “Test me, Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind...” Let’s pause a moment here. How did you feel reading that? I felt a little knot in my stomach. Why? Because I am willingly asking God to examine my heart knowing I might be called to surrender something. Not an easy request, but necessary as David explains, “for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness” (Psalm 26:2-3). It is impossible to have reliance on God’s faithfulness if we are holding onto everything. If we want to experience what it is to fully rely on Christ, surrender is a part of that process.

We see surrender as a product of obedience to Christ throughout Scripture. Meditating on these verses and praying them may help you to further understand the process of surrender for yourself leading you in obedience and wholeness in Christ.

James 4: 7

Proverbs 3:5

Matthew 6:33

Romans 12:2

1 Peter 5:6

Matthew 11:28-30

Psalm 55:22

Psalm 139:23

Mark 12:30-31

2 Cor. 5:14-15

Final Thoughts

Surrendering is a forever battle. The enemy would love nothing more than for us to forgo surrender. It is one of his underhanded ways to keep us from the fullness of Christ. However, our God is stronger! Through our willingness to surrender, identifying what we need to surrender, and following through with surrender, we slam the door to the enemy and open ourselves to “take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me (us)” (Phil. 3:12).

Challenge Questions:

1)        Spend time in prayer seeking God’s wisdom for what your bravest prayer may need to be. Write what he has revealed to you.

2)        What has God placed on your heart to surrender? What are ways you can follow through with surrendering?