“The greatness of the man’s power is the measure of his surrender.” ~ William Booth
We were taught when we were very young that four letter words were bad. Well, surrender certainly would be considered a four letter word by many people. How often have we watched war movies where surrender was not an option? People fought to the death rather than surrendered.
I guess the whole idea of surrendering clashes with our human nature. We do not like to surrender to anyone because that would be an admission that we are no longer in charge. We like to be in charge. We want to be in charge. We demand to be in charge.
That is why illness often hits people so hard. A person could be going along incredibly well only to be stopped by a chronic illness. Instead of being in charge, that person finds himself or herself at numerous doctors receiving numerous treatments. Often, the treatments even conflict with the person being in charge of his or her own body. Bodily functions fail, movement is erratic, and the person is more dependent upon others.
Maybe our abhorrence of surrender is what makes it so difficult to surrender our will to God. God made us in His image and likeness and gave us free will. He desires us to come back to Him but we often go our own merry way. We do not want to surrender to Him because we feel we will no longer be masters of our own destiny.
We can fight all we want. Ultimately, there comes a time when we have to give up and surrender to God as He calls us from this life to eternal life. Make it easier on yourself. Begin to surrender to God’s will today. Let God be in charge. Ask Him what He wants of you rather than telling God what you want Him to do.
FAITH ACTION: Pray for the virtue of humility so that you may be able to surrender yourself to God.