A Life Surrendered

To surrender is to relinquish my hold on, or control of, something.  For most of us, surrender is a fear-producing, threatening act.  But those who have come through the school of "hard knocks" have learned that you can surrender willingly unto God the things He desires, or you can live through multitudes of knock-downs and your nose scraping the pavement until you put up the white flag--you choose.

Fearfully, I dropped my first "surrender seed" into God's hands--my daughter Beth at just two or three years old.  Thoughts of God taking her from me if I gave her to Him terrified me, but gentle nudges and reassurances that my God loved her even more than I persuaded me that it was a safe, and even wise, act for me.  When my dear Beth contracted cancer at age twenty-nine, I revisited my act of surrender, much like the faith heroes of old returning to their meeting places with God, and I had assurance of heart from my God that the disease would not take her life.

Beth was my first seed, but not my last.  I deposited three more daughters into God's hands, my husband, my hopes for a godly marriage, troubles too numerous to mention, my unsaved father (whom I had the pleasure of leading to salvation), other family members, friends...only God knows the seeds I have sown.

My strong desires, even to see God's will accomplished, took more time.  I remember the day that I brought my unequally yoked marriage to God and said, even if my husband never surrenders his life and heart to You, I accept my ministry to be a godly wife and love him in Your name.  This prayer represented almost twenty-four years of tears, pleading, rebuking the devil, hating my lot, carrying untold hurts, to my personal altar, and I offered them all up to God.  Not long after, my husband came to me and asked if we could start reading the Bible together.  God received my sacrifice as a sweet aroma and returned to me my heart's desire.

Things I surrender to God fall from my hand, where they have no chance to live, into soil that represents my trust and faith in God, and He never disappoints.  In this soil, God is the garden-tender, weeding and watering, causing growth and giving harvest, as He sees fit.

Yet, He has a work for these hands.  The utmost privilege for my hands is to lift them up to Him in surrender and adoration.  In them, my heart and my spirit soar heavenward until I see myself coming into His throne room to enjoy His presence.  With my hands, I reach out to love and help others.  With my hands, I work dutifully at tasks that accompany life in this realm.  With my spiritual hands, I snatch others from the hand of the enemy.

From my heart, I surrender my whole life--spirit, soul, and body--to Him.  He loves me unconditionally, all the time.

You can trust Him and surrender your life, with all its individual parts, to Him, too.  True life begins the moment of surrender.  Test it for yourself.