When Surrender Means Victory

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‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’ — Jeremiah 29:11

From the first week of her new husband’s deployment to Iraq until he came home, Melissa would cry every Sunday in church, like clockwork. “About halfway through the deployment I began to realize I wasn’t crying because I missed Mike or because I was sad,” she says. “I would sit in church and feel so unbelievably helpless and small compared to God’s capacity to take care of us. I cried during worship because I felt just so thankful for His magnitude, and because it was such a relief to submit to His control. Resting in the Lord’s strength, not my own, was an overwhelming comfort.”

Melissa learned that her emotional and spiritual survival was inexorably linked to her belief that God was in control all over the world, from her husband’s base in Fallujah, Iraq, to her home in Washington, D.C. Only when she surrendered to His plan and provision was she released from the grip of fear. That’s when peace came.

The Bible is full of heroes of the faith who were surrendered to God’s plan before they were used of Him. When the Lord told Abram to leave his country with virtually no explanation, Abram left (Genesis 12:4). When Mary learned that she was suddenly carrying the Messiah in her womb, she responded with, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

May we be so surrendered to God’s plan for us that when facing adversity we can echo Job’s sentiments when he said: “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD . . . . Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 1:21, 2:10).

Though he was “grieved to the point of death,” Jesus surrendered to God’s plan for His impending crucifixion at Gethsemane (Matthew 26:39,42).

Nancy Leigh DeMoss says that God asks us to sign a blank contract for our life and let Him fill in all the details afterward:

“Why? Because I am God; because I have bought you; because I am trustworthy; because you know how much I love you; because you live for My glory and not your own independent, self-promoting pleasure.’

“(When signing that blank paper,) we cannot lose, because He is a God who can be completely trusted. If we will let Him, God will fill in the details of our lives with His incomparable wisdom and sovereign plan, written in the indelible ink of His covenant faithfulness and love.” (Surrender, p. 59)

When we surrender to Christ, we are surrendering not to an enemy, as in war, but to our greatest advocate! By relinquishing our control to One much more powerful and wise than ourselves, we can trust that not only will our basic needs be met, but we will be spiritually nourished as well. For us, to surrender to Christ is resounding victory for God’s glory.

Pray: Lord, Increase my faith and give me the discipline and courage so that I might surrender my life, my hopes and dreams to you daily. Help me to desire Your glory more than my own comfort and convenience. Show me what it means to be submitted to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Questions to Share:

1. What areas of my life am I holding back from surrendering to God?

2. What could I gain if I were to give to Christ my fears, anxiety and desire to control?

Jocelyn Green is an award-winning freelance writer and author of Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives (http://www.faithdeployed.com/), from which this devotional was reposted with permission from Moody Publishers. She is also the co-author of Battlefields & Blessings: Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq & Afghanistan. She and her husband Rob live with their two children in Cedar Falls, Iowa.