Before I begin, I want to share my deep appreciation for our leadership team, and the unbelievably anointed messages that each of them preached this summer. I am so blessed to call each of these amazing women friends. I can’t imagine running this ministry without them.
The outline for this message came to me a couple of months ago while I was paddleboarding, of all places. As I paddled around the lake he gave me the title for the message, “Victory through Surrender.”
Why has surrender come up so much this summer? Well, surrender is really at the heart of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is that relationship with Christ that we find victory not only in eternity, but also in daily struggles, shortcomings, and sin issues that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
As I prayed that day, I began to think about how surrendering can be the easy part. But, once we’ve surrendered our circumstances, trials, and burdens to the Lord, how to we avoid taking them back again? There lies the struggle.
Proverbs 3: 1-6 says, “My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; For length of days and long life and peace they will add to you. Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Let’s pray:
Jesus, thank you for the amazing Summer we’ve had together. Thank you for the incredible women who have attended, and for our wonderful leadership team and volunteers who have devoted their time and energy to bringing You glory through this ministry. We thank you for the tears, the joy, the opportunities to overcome fear, the friendships that have formed, the healings that have occurred, and for the impact you have made in each of our lives this summer through Chick Climber. Thank you for protecting us from harm and for all the amazing weather you have provided this summer. We desire to praise you and bring you glory in all we do today and always. As we close out this season, I pray that we leave here today knowing that in Christ we can have victory. – In Jesus’ mighty name, Amen.
The dictionary defines surrender as: “cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority.”
For fun, I decided to test out Google’s AI capabilities and asked Google for the Christian definition of surrender. Here is what it said: “In the Bible, surrender is when a believer gives up their own will and trusts in a higher power, such as God. This can mean turning away from worldly offerings, other people’s opinions, and one’s own strategies for life, and instead choosing to follow God’s divine viewpoint. It can also mean admitting that one cannot save or change themselves, and instead putting themselves under God’s leadership.”
I feel like that’s a pretty good definition. Surrender is an easy concept to grasp but living it out is not. Being a Christ follower is more than that initial surrender and salvation. God wants all of us, including our shortcomings, trials, and burdens. It’s during a crisis, loss, trauma, or diagnosis when surrender gets difficult.
I surrendered my life to Jesus 25 years ago. Since then, I’ve been laying down my troubles and picking them back up regularly. I don’t know about you, but I am a fix-it person. I consistently find myself striving to fix my flaws, my situation, my son’s problems, my family drama, my bad habits, my diagnosis, my scars; whatever it is I’m dealing with. I will strive myself into anxiety, depression, and utter exhaustion trying to control the uncontrollable. It’s only when I give up and surrender my circumstances to God can I see real change in my life.
Yes, I’ve walked with the Lord for over 25 years. But this idea of really laying down my burdens before the Lord is a journey I’ve only begun to walk. This past year hasn’t been easy, to say the least. I began the season admitting that I wasn’t ready for Chick Climber to begin. But I surrendered the uncertainty to God and moved forward with obedience throughout this summer. I did what I could, I simply showed up and provided a venue for God to be glorified and lives to be touched. I left the rest up to God. Boy did He deliver. The small victory I’d like to share today is the fact that I do not want this season to end. It has been a fantastic year, to say the least.
Giving it all to God doesn’t mean we can be lazy or flippant about our circumstances. I can’t cure my back problems. I must surrender the idea that I might never be able to climb like I used to or someday be without pain. Healing can only come from God. At the same time, God doesn’t want me to lay around all depressed and let my body deteriorate further.
What can I control in this situation? I can go to physical therapy and do my daily exercises at home. I can go to the gym and improve my fitness level. I can eat right and take care of my body to the best of my ability. Other than that, there’s nothing else I can do. I must trust Him with the outcome, no matter what that looks like.
Here’s where it gets tricky. Do I have the fortitude to do the hard work necessary? Honestly, not eally. But I’ve seen God increase my drive and determination exponentially in other areas through prayer and submission. I have demonstrated over and over that I cannot do what needs to be done on my own. So, I have submitted my struggle in this area to Him as well. I can honestly say, little by little, God is changing me, and I see victory on the horizon.
Even in the darkest times of our lives, we can find peace, joy, and rest when we stop striving to fix things that we have no control over.
Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. He is my portion; He is my strength.
When you come to the end of your rope and realize that you have nothing left and you are utterly incapable of finding victory on your own, that is where surrender begins.
Surrendering our circumstances is only the beginning. As I said earlier, the harder part is to leave them there. That’s where I have had difficulty. How many times have you given your burdens to the Father only to take them back? Before we know it, we’re right back where we were anxious and striving to fix the things that aren’t possible for us to fix.
Paddling around on the lake that day, God showed me three tools that can help us to avoid taking back our burdens once we have surrendered them to Jesus. They are:
- Be purposeful with the practice of renewing our mind
- Surround yourself with godly friends and counsel
- Celebrate the small victories
- Be OK with not knowing the entire picdture
First: Be purposeful with the practice of renewing your mind.
Renewing your mind is essential in many areas of our lives, especially when trying to live a surrendered life.
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.”
How do we renew our minds? We must stay in the Word, spend time with Jesus in prayer, get involved in a local Church, and study. We also must take time to be quiet and open our hearts to listen and hear what God may want to say to us. By practicing the renewal of our minds, we keep our eyes off ourselves and focus on Him.
We cannot live a surrendered life if we are self-focused. Shifting our focus away from God and back onto ourselves allows room for the enemy to direct our thoughts toward taking back control of our situation. Little by little we will take back those things we once gave to God. Then, one day we wake up and realize that all the old anxiety and striving has replaced the joy, rest, and peace that comes from a surrendered life.
2: Surround yourself with Godly friends and council
Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. We are not meant to walk this life alone. We need people we can lament to, seek counsel from, and pray with.
I could never make it without the support, accountability, encouragement, and prayer that comes from the solid Christian, godly people in my life. You know the old saying, “You are who you hang out with.” That is true at any age. The people I choose to surround myself with help me to become a better version of myself, and they point my focus back to Jesus when I become self-consumed. Best of all, they take the time to pray with me about my trials and struggles.
3: Celebrate the smallest of victories
Does victory just mean that we’ve met our goal weight, restored our marriage, found healing, broke that bad habit, or overcome an addiction? Those are all victories that we can aspire to. But what about day-to-day?
Zachariah 4:10 in the NLT says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin”
One of the pastors and authors I follow, Greg Rochelle, talked about how every choice is a vote. When we choose to let go and surrender; when we choose to renew our minds; when we choose to surround ourselves with godly influences instead of worldly ones; when we choose to walk in obedience and take responsibility ONLY for the areas we can control; when we choose not to be paralyzed by the areas we can’t control; when we study God’s word and find rest in His promises; when we praise Him even in our darkest days; we are casting a vote to live a surrendered life. With every vote to trust God and surrender we move closer to victory.
As we continue to vote for a surrendered life, we may not see a significant change in our countenance early on. But like compound interest, your small victories will compound over time. Suddenly we see a glimmer of hope that our child might find deliverance from anxiety and depression, that our addiction might be overcome, that our prayer life has improved, that our loved one might turn to Jesus, that our body might find healing, or that our hope might be restored. It’s then that we realize all we did was follow Jesus and walk a life of obedience. Instead of striving to fix it, we did our part and let Him take care of the rest. That is how we find victory through surrender.
As you practice renewing your mind, surround yourself with Godly friends and council, and celebrate the small victories, I want to leave you with one final thought to help you live a surrendered life.
4. Be OK with not knowing the entire picture
1 Corinthians 13:12, Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely
I can’t take credit for this analogy. I heard this last week at a funeral sermon preached by Pastor Craig from First Assembly here in Rapid City. I thought it was the perfect picture to share with you today.
Think about one little puzzle piece. This one piece of the puzzle cannot tell the entire picture. You know it has a purpose. Unfortunately, without the picture on the box, you have no idea what it is, or what it is for. This is sometimes the case with our circumstances. We want to understand. We want to know where this is going. We want to know the outcome.
Sometimes, that’s just not possible. Sometimes all we have is a little puzzle piece and no clue what to do with it. We must trust God, knowing that He has the puzzle box and all the other pieces. He knows the entire picture. Surrendering means we let go of the unknown and trust Him with the entire picture. In those times, all we can do is hold onto our confusing piece of the puzzle until He tells us where to put it.
In his book, “Living Water,” Chuck Smith says, “The Christian life really is the ultimate experience. But it is only so for those who allow God free reign in their lives.” [In other words, to surrender.] “The Christian life is the ultimate experience only for those who invite God to do everything for them that he wants to do. It is so only for those who say no to the flesh and yes to the Spirit, moving unto Jesus. It is the ultimate experience only for those who allow God to bring forth much fruit in their lives.”
It is only through surrender that we find the ability to overcome the biggest battles and experience the fruitful abundant life God promises us. Our verse this year was Corinthians 15:7, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” As we close out this season, I am hoping for and believing that over the coming days, weeks, and months, as you begin to live a surrendered life, you will experience the victories, big and small, you are seeking.