Inside Out: A 40 Day Journey to Transforming Your HeartSample

Idolatrous Heart --> Surrendered Heart

Have you ever tried to pry a forbidden, unsafe object from a toddler’s hands? Their hands clench. Their face is red with anger.  They voice the one word they know how to say so well, “NO!” It is frustrating as the guardian to know that you must get this dangerous object out of the child’s hands to keep him safe, even though he will never understand why. 

This is how we are toward God.  He knows we hold on too tightly to certain things that can harm us.  Yet, when He offers to protect and guide us to safety, we get angry.  We do not want to surrender certain things. We believe they will bring us comfort. They will bring us joy. They will provide love and stability.  

Our hopes are set on a particular relationship working out, a career path coming to fruition, having the home of our dreams, and experiencing exotic vacations. We believe a specific position will give us power. A certain person will provide us with love.  A specific career will provide us with a purpose. Though each of these things isn’t bad in and of themselves, they can be dangerous if we put them as the focus in our hearts rather than God. If these goals or desires are placed higher than intimacy with Christ, then we are cultivating an idolatrous heart.  2 Chronicles 20:33 says, “The high places, however, were not taken away; the people had not yet set their hearts upon the God of their fathers.”  We must choose who or what we place as the highest priority and focus in our lives. 

What does God want us to surrender to Him freely? 1 Chronicles 29:17 says, “I know, my God that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.  In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you.” He wants us to be willing to surrender all things to Him. 

Surrender is scary unless we understand that God asks us to surrender things because He cares for us. He cares about what might be hurting us or harming us. He cares about our potential. He cares about us becoming more like Jesus, which means letting go of things that are not making us pure.  Our first step toward surrender must be to choose to trust God based on His character, not our own wisdom. 

We must trust God enough to surrender our agendas, reputations, expectations, relationships, possessions and follow Him.  We may never know exactly why He’s asking us to give up this one particular thing, especially if it doesn’t seem wrong or harmful, but we still must trust that He asks us to surrender things for our greater good.

We must love God enough to say that we want to do His will more than our own will. Our love and trust for Him will be our motivators when surrender is painful and seemingly impossible at the moment.  When letting go of something feels like death: the death of a relationship, death of a dream, death of a career; when saying yes to following Him means ridicule, persecution, and sacrifice; when surrender feels like all joy, hope and peace has been sucked out of us and been replaced by uncertainty, grief, and some anxiety.  We surrender, not because it feels good or right, but because we love Him.

Jesus is not asking us to do something He didn’t do.  Jesus surrendered to God the Father’s plan when He prayed in the garden before He was arrested to be taken to His death. He said in Luke 22:42, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus had to trust that God the Father’s plan was the best way to accomplish saving us.  It was not a painless solution. It was excruciating physically, emotionally, relationally, and spiritually.  Jesus experienced all aspects of pain for us to have the opportunity to be reconciled to the Father.  

We cannot expect to surrender and not experience any loss, suffering, or pain.  It is through surrendering that we become more like Jesus in His death.  We must put to death whatever God asks, so that, we can truly experience the life He has for us.  When we surrender, we also experience the power of the Holy Spirit working through us to bring new life within ourselves and to others around us.  

The apostle Paul knew this trade-off very well: In Philippians 3:7-8, he said, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.  For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” 

We must have a greater vision about surrender. It is not about what we are losing or that it will be hard, which is true, but that we will gain so much more if we surrender. We will gain Christ. We will experience Him more fully. We will have a deeper joy, a greater peace, a richer fulfillment in our lives because we are living for Him and His purposes and not ourselves.  

 Let us release what we’ve been holding on to and “Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in Heaven” (Lamentations 3:41). May we remove the idols of our hearts in surrender so we can experience His incredible will for our lives. 

Take a Moment:

• What things have you placed before God in your life? 

• How does thinking about what Jesus’ surrender cost Him help you be open to the cost of surrender? 

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, show me areas in my life that I have prioritized over You. Show me what You want me to surrender.  Help me to love and trust You enough to be willing to surrender anything You ask me to surrender. I open my heart and hands to You as Lord of my life and my first priority. Amen.