Chasing Donkeys Series: Follow the Tracks Sample

Full Surrender

Have you ever found yourself in a state of frustration with your life as a follower of Jesus? You can repeat the words of Paul by memory: “I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway.” (Romans 7:19). You start the day with a reading plan, some scripture and top it off with a prayer. At the end of the day, you realize you’re no closer to God than when you said “Amen” that morning.

What gives?

I could give you a list of questions to evaluate what you did or did not do during the day to grow closer to God. Yet, the core solution is less about what we do and more about who we do it with.

In the beginning, God created us for fellowship with Him. It’s why He made us in His image. In the Creation story, humans were the capstone of the creation process, and then He rested (but not “rested” as in taking a Sunday nap.) Rather, God rested from His work so He could spend time with Adam and Eve and, in essence, us. He craves time with us. But it has to be more than a few minutes as we rush through the morning, preparing for our day ahead.

As much as he tried to resist the servant, Saul surrendered his desire to give up and go see the "man of God." His surrender was the turning point for discovering what God had in store. "All right," Saul agreed, "let's try it!" So the started into the town where the man of God lived." 1 Samuel 9:10

A key component to growing closer to God is full surrender to Him. It’s a “both hands in the air” kind of surrender where we make Him part of EVERY decision and action of our day, not just the morning or night before bed. It’s asking Him for wisdom about the day ahead as we walk out of the bedroom to fix breakfast. It’s asking Him to protect our hearts and minds as we negotiate the morning commute. It’s asking Him to bless the people we will see first thing when we get to work. It’s asking Him for resolve to not gossip about a coworker. I hope you get the picture.

Full surrender means we give every part of our day to Him and follow Him as he leads. It is seeking and inviting Him into every aspect of our life, assuming no request is too small, and no obstacle is too big. My friend Tommy Moore, President of Jumpstart USA, has extensively studied the discipline of surrendering. He likes to share a statement his pastor, Bill White, once made in a sermon: “Surrender is one big decision supported by a million small decisions.”