Surrender

The idea of surrender is usually associated with weakness. BUT I know someone who allowed their surrender to be their greatest strength.

Jesus.

He surrendered HIS WILL for the perfect will of His Father. He knew it would be difficult, He knew what was waiting for Him, and we get to have a glimpse of His heart that longed for nothing less than FULL surrender to His Father.

Probably the most life changing, eternity altering and beautiful words ever spoken are found in Luke 22:42 “…Yet not my will, but Yours be done.”

These words echoed in the halls of Heaven on that devastating yet glorious day. Jesus chose to surrender. Let go of His will and His desire to be safe. He laid down His fleshly longing to protect Himself.

Why? Why would a man choose to surrender, especially when He knew the pain and anguish that awaited Him? I don’t know many, if any, men that would do what Jesus did that day.

But I know why Jesus did it.

He did it for me. He did it for you. He chose to surrender Himself fully so that each person had the privilege and opportunity to be loved and completely accepted by God the Father.

The BEST part of the story though is not JUST that He did surrender, that was just the beginning of what Jesus did. He endured. He remained silent and took beating after beating. He pushed through and continued to surrender Himself over and over again that day.

I have to say the BEST part of this story of surrender is that Jesus defeated, ruined, and destroyed any power that satan ever had and ever would try to have again. In His surrender He actually was fighting a battle that at the time no one understood. But three days later a small glimpse of understanding came to the people Jesus knew, when He was alive AGAIN. He rose and showed that surrender is NOT weakness… surrender to God’s perfect will is ALWAYS a strength and will ALWAYS end in victory.

Today there are very few instances that could or ever would even come close to comparing to what Jesus had to endure because of His surrender.

There are things though in our lives that God is asking us to surrender to His will in. It’s never an easy decision, Jesus sweat blood while making His decision, but what we can see from Jesus’ story is that surrender to God’s Will is always surrendering to receive more.

So will you say…. “Not MY will, but Yours be done…” ??