Surrender ALL to God?
I have been reading “The Fisherman,” by Larry
Huntsperger. It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it. The author
writes from Peter’s viewpoint and recounts Peter’s encounter with Jesus and the
ensuing years he spent following Christ.
At one point, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do the
people say that I am?” The disciples offer several responses. Then Jesus asks
them, “Who do you say that I am?” This is what ‘Peter’ thinks of that question:
There is a frantic, desperate,
driving part of us that longs to answer that question with “prophet… teacher…
wonderful, wise and remarkable man.” Those responses carry limited implications
for ourselves. I can learn from a teacher. I can respect a prophet. I can
admire a wise and wonderful man. I can take what he offers and integrate it
into my own life as I see fit. But what if he is more? What if he is someone to
whom I owe submission, to whom I must relinquish my own agenda? What if the
correct answer to that question requires not just my mind but also my will?[i]
This last phrase really made me pause and think. Have I
really surrendered all of my life to Christ? My family? My finances? Each one
of my children? My one son’s autism? My work, my free time, my sleep? Can I
truly say “your will be done” in all of those areas of my life and be content
with it?
I felt as though the Spirit was whispering to me “surrender
your agenda. Don’t make your agenda, God’s agenda. What if God doesn’t want the
same for your life as you want? Maybe the easy, or what seems the obvious
solution, aren’t what God desires for you at this point in your life? What if
everything you’ve put your hope in, and all of your earthly plans for the
future don’t match up with God’s? Can you truly say to Him ‘your will be done’?”
So often I go to God in prayer asking Him for this, or
that. “Lord, if you could just do such and such, our life would be so much
better.” But maybe better in my eyes is not better in God’s eyes? This is where
true surrender makes us say, “Lord, I give up all the plans that I’ve dreamed
of, all the hopes I’ve built up, trusting that you have a bigger, greater plan
etched out for me. I don’t know what it is, or where it will lead me, but I
will follow whatever it costs and wherever it leads.”
I can surrender my life, my family’s lives, my autistic
son’s future, to my “Abba” because He has the best interests in mind for my
family and me. I trust Him because He loves me. It doesn’t mean life will be
easy. Maybe He’s chosen the rough road for me. I don’t know yet. But one thing
I do know: Jesus loves me. And that, alone, will be strength enough to carry me
through whatever valleys or hilltops He has in store for me.
About
the author:
I am the daughter of TEAM missionaries (The
Evangelical Alliance Mission). I was raised in France, attended French schools,
obtained my French Baccalaureate then attended Emmaus Bible College in
Switzerland where I graduated with a degree in Bible and Theology.
I now live in the Missouri Ozarks with my husband Len
and my three sons, one of whom has been diagnosed with Asperger’s.
I am a member of the Ozarks’ Chapter of American
Christian Writers and a founding member of the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild.
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