Freedom in Surrender

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

James 4:7 (NKJV)

God wants you to become so much more than you currently are. He has great plans for you. But when it comes to making spiritual progress, the decision has to be one of surrender. 

It cannot be forced upon you, because the Lord wants you to yield, not break. He wants you to surrender. Sometimes life's circumstances will hit hard to bring about that surrender, but it’s necessary in order for us to move forward.

William Booth, who founded the Salvation Army, said, “The greatness of a person's power is the measure of his or her surrender.” Surrender is the ultimate act of power. You are living at your strongest not when you are conquering things in life, but when you are surrendering to the lordship of Jesus Christ in your life.

It's like that certain animal trap where if the trapped animal would simply back up a little, the trapping device would relax and the animal would be able to escape. That's the shape of our lives. If we would just learn how to let go of our lives, we would find the freedom and the blessing and the liberation that we are in search of. If we would give up the rights and responsibility and control of our lives and turn them over as an offering of surrender to Jesus, we can become precisely the people God intends for us to be.

Surrender is the first step.