Here are some questions that deserve to be addressed: How do I surrender to God? Why do I surrender to God? What are the obstacles to abandoning oneself in the hands of the Lord?
Indeed, many feel the need to come to God. Some have the will to come to God, but they do not know how to go about it. Others, on the other hand, find it difficult to surrender themselves to the hands of God. To surrender to God has become an enigma to solve. It is in this context that the preacher Thomson Dablemond (brother of Isaiah) dedicates this article to answer this problem.
1 • An Appeal To Our Conscience and Intelligence, Without Pressure or Obligation
” Come and plead ” (Isaiah 1:18, Version Louis Segond 1910). This is the invitation that the Creator sends to all beings. He does not violate the will of his creatures. He cannot accept a tribute that is not voluntary and which is not intelligently given to him.
Forced submission would prevent all true intellectual and moral development; she would lower man to the state of the automaton. This is not the purpose of our Creator. He wants a man to reach the highest degree of development.
Desiring to fulfill his will in us, God invites us to give ourselves to him voluntarily. It is up to us to decide whether we want to be freed from the slavery of sin and to participate in the glorious freedom of the children of God: the only condition is, therefore, to surrender ourselves to God to benefit from his privileges.
Before seeking to know how to surrender to God, we must keep in mind that God’s will is that we surrender ourselves to him.
And indeed, I know you’re asking yourself this question: How do I surrender to God? That’s why I invite You to Continue Reading.
2 • How do I surrender to God?
In giving ourselves to God, we must necessarily give up everything that might keep us away from him. This is why the Lord says, ” Whosoever among you does not renounce all that he possesses cannot be my disciple ” (Luke 14:33).
It is, therefore, necessary to get rid of our idols: the love of money, of human glory, of the love of the world, the pleasures of this world, vanity and pride, etc. We cannot be part of the Lord and partly to the world and to Satan (see Matthew 6: 21, 24). We become children of God only from the moment we are unreserved.
Many people ask: How do I surrender to God? You desire to give yourself to him, but you are weak morally, slave of doubt and under the influence of the habits of your life of sin. Your promises and your resolutions are like cobwebs. You cannot dominate your thoughts, your impulses, your affections. Remembrance of your broken promises and commitments that you have failed to weaken your trust in your own sincerity, and creates in you the feeling that God cannot accept you …
But you have no reason to despair. What you need is to know the real power of the will. The motor of the human personality is the faculty of deciding, of choosing. Everything depends on the will. God has given us the power to choose: it’s up to us to exercise it.
To answer the relevant question: how do I surrender to God? We must first go through the first step. This is the most critical step. It’s about exercising the will to surrender yourself to God. Without the will, you cannot surrender to God.
You who read this blog, I would like to share this with you. Indeed, at a specific moment in my life, I asked myself this question: How do I surrender to God? And I understood as everything went away from the personal will.
You cannot change your heart; you cannot give yourself your affections to God, but you can decide to serve it. You can give him your will, and he will produce in you the will and do it at his pleasure. Thus your whole being will be placed under the forceful action of the Spirit of Christ; your affections will be concentrated on him, your thoughts will be in harmony with his.
By the judicious use of the will, a complete change can take place in your life.
A Note: By submitting your will to Jesus Christ, you are uniting to a force that is superior to all principalities and powers. The strength from above will be communicated to you to make you unshakeable, and thus by always putting yourself in the hands of God, you will be able to live the new life, namely, the life of faith.
3 • Abandonment of Self: To Depend on God and to Abide in God in All Things at All Times and in All Circumstances.
People are professing to serve God who relies exclusively on their own strength to obey the law – to correct their faults and secure salvation. This is a big mistake and a big trap for Satan. To do so is to ignore the meaning of surrender to God. For these people nobody, their heart is not touched by the deep feeling of the Savior’s love, but they strive to fulfill the duties of the Christian life as a condition to be fulfilled to reach heaven. Such a religion is worth absolutely nothing. When Christ dwells in a heart, he is so filled with his love and the joy of his fellowship that he clings to him. In contemplation of the Savior, the self (pride) is forgotten and subject to Christ. No one can please God without the help of God; and for this divine help to happen, it is necessary to surrender to God: it is the only condition on this subject.
Those who have genuinely surrendered themselves to the Lord will understand that Abandonment of self, on the one hand, is Depend on God. Like the Apostle, Paul could say: ” I can do everything through him who strengthens me ” (Philippians 4: 13), ” For it is God who produces in you the will and the will, according to his good pleasure ” (Philippians 2:13). The Lord rightly tells us this: ” Without me, you can do nothing ” (John 15: 5).
To depend on God is to live in God: to live only by God, in God, and for God to glorify the Lord. Without God, we are nothing and cannot do anything.
This is the second step to surrender to God. We must realize that we are nothing and that without God we are nothing. Let us keep in mind that our true happiness in the fact that we depend on God and that it is in our interest to remain in God in all things and in all times.
4 • Does God Deserve Me to Surrender to Him?
Do we feel that it is too high a sacrifice to give everything to the Lord? We ask ourselves: What did Jesus Christ do for us?
The Son of God has given everything for our redemption: his life, his love, his sufferings. I give you an example of my experience. When I sought to know what Christ did for me: I understood then that I surrendered myself to God. So, I asked myself the question that you are asking yourself now too: how do I surrender to God?
I would like you to like this understanding at the same level as me. This thought must be cultivated: it is easier for me to surrender to God when I understand and am interested in what God has done for me in Jesus Christ.
The Lord has given all that was greatest and most precious, all his strength … that we may obtain the salvation of our souls. It makes sense that only in Jesus Christ do we have our salvation. Our self-surrender in the hands of God contributes to the salvation of our souls.
It is necessary that Jesus enters a life so that this life can be saved by him.
My proud heart asks the question: Why repent, why humble myself before I have the assurance that I can be accepted by God? Those who ask such questions must review the Savior’s agony for the salvation of humanity (see Isaiah 53). When we meditate on the sufferings, the life, and the love of the Messiah, we will, of course, know that he deserves that we give him our whole being without reserve, with joy, trust, and love for our happiness and our salvation in Jesus Christ.
5 • a Necessary Struggle for a Spiritual Transformation…
The war against the ego is the greatest that has ever been delivered. The abandonment of oneself, the complete submission to the will of God, cannot be obtained without a struggle; but this submission is necessary for our transformation and sanctification. Therefore, we must fight daily to overcome pride in ourselves.
One of the most significant victories of man is to conquer or kill his pride. And this is the third step to surrender to God. This is the final step. It is continual, daily, and the most difficult. It’s about defeating ourselves. We must submit our will to that of God and always accept the will of God in our life. If there is indeed, what can prevent a man from surrendering to God is his pride. What you have to do is defeat “your pride,” “yourself.” Without this, you will not be able to surrender to God.
In your life, in your heart, in your thoughts, in your way of life, you must be demeaned, and God is lifted up. You have to be in the background, and God is in the foreground. Do you understand that? Well, that’s a conception you must have in mind when we talk about how to surrender to God.
6 • Pride: Enmity with God
If there is a proud man, who asks how to surrender to God. It is necessary that he know this truth with force: pride is the opposite of humility. And Pride prevents the heart from being willing for God. When we are proud we become enemies of God; there is enmity between God and the proud. Because Pride always opposes the will and the divine thought.
The proud cannot coexist with God. This is why Lucifer could not be allowed to stay in Heaven, and he was rushed. It is the pride that was the origin of the fall of Satan (Isaiah 14: 12-15, Ezekiel 28: 15-18). We are therefore warned not to give ourselves up to pride and not to boast of our independent thoughts (Romans 11: 20-21, James 4: 16). God hates pride (Proverbs 8:13).
You may be able to know the Bible. You have listened to enough sermons. You have heard the testimony of many people, and you have known how they surrendered themselves to God. You may be a member of a church. You are engaged in the service of God. But, if you are proud. You will never be connected to God. It would be an illusion. No one who is proud can boast of being approved of God.
7 • Pride Is a Danger Not to Be Taken Lightly …
Pride is the most significant barrier to spiritual transformation in our lives – and even the manifestation of God in our lives. Pride is one of the first weapons of the Devil to make us fall into temptation and lead us to disobedience.
Let us remember that to deceive Eve, Satan had told her: you will be like gods (Genesis 3: 5).
Pride is a danger to the one who accepts and practices it; he destroys man, he causes his ruin and his fall, he causes to dwell in iniquity too (Proverbs 16:18, Isaiah 2: 11-12, Jeremiah 49:16, Ezekiel 16: 49-50, Obadiah 1: 3, Habakkuk 2: 5).
Pride prevents us from listening to the voice of God and following the path, the will of the Creator (Jeremiah 13:15). Pride blinds and misleads us (1 Timothy 6: 4-5).
In truth, I did this experiment. And I continue to understand that pride has never been useful to man. Especially when it comes to the context of the question: how do I surrender to God?
Other verses on pride: Deuteronomy 17: 13 / 2 Samuel 2: 28 / Nehemiah 9: 16,29 / Job 35: 12 / Psalm 10: 2 / Psalm 119: 21 / Proverbs 11: 2 / Proverbs 13: 10.
8 • How to Recognize That I Am Proud?
Pride gives birth to arrogance, haughty looks, boasting, a presumptuous attitude, selfishness, egocentrism, envy and lust, dissatisfaction, insubordination, violence, insolence, manipulation, disbelief, ingratitude …
– (Romans 12:16): The proud think to know everything, to know everything. He believes in himself above others. He thinks himself the wisest. He always wants to be above others. He thinks he is the point of reference for the Christian life and thinks that everything must revolve around him.
He seeks to dominate any relationship or link he has with others. He is authoritarian in character. In his own eyes, he is the wisest, the most intelligent, the model to follow, the way to go …
– (Jeremiah 13:15): The Proud One does not listen to the advice of others. He does not like being blamed. He does not want to learn anything from others. He refuses the warnings of the Lord, he rejects the instructions of the Bible by reasoning. He is not attentive.
– (Proverbs 3: 5,7): The Proudest thinks he can fly on his own, he trusts his goods, his strength, his intelligence, his wisdom, etc. In a word, he relies on himself, he trusts himself. He tells himself that he does not need help or advice from God. For him, he does not need God to have a better life. As a result, he relies on himself in everything and not on God. He refuses to depend on God, or even to humble himself before the face of God. He embodies the attitude of Satan.
Partial Conclusion on How Do I Surrender to God
I realized and realized that I’m not the only one to ask myself this question: how do I surrender to God? I found it necessary to write this article under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I have this certainty that if you take into consideration these truths and teachings in this article, and put them above all into practice, by the grace of God, you will see your relationship with God improve.
Indeed, self-abandonment is the first step, the first thing to do if we want to have an intimate relationship with God. Self-abandonment is necessary for the Christian who wants to know an intimate personal relationship with Christ. It is the same for the one who wants to become a pious Christian, sincere and particularly approved of God. Without self-surrender, no relationship can be possible with the Lord. Because in a personal relationship with God: he must be the shepherd, and we the sheep – he must be the doorman, and we clay him. Do you want to maintain a stable, intimate personal relationship with Jesus? Then begin to learn how to surrender to God. May God keep us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Amen!