There’s a song I love that says “I surrender all. Lord, I surrender all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior. I surrender all”. It's a beautiful song, and even more of a beautiful declaration, right? After reading a devotional one day, the thought came to me….... Do I really surrender all? After all, all means ALL. The dictionary defines it this way, the pronoun for all is used to refer to the whole quantity or extent of a particular group or thing. The adverb for all is “completely”, consisting entirely of. And the noun for all is described as the whole of one’s energy or interest.
In reading the various definitions of ALL, the questions began to roll through my mind. Am I truly surrendering all to God? Am I completely giving over my interests and plans, am I always surrendering to Him, in all things? In all transparency, the answer was NO. In realizing this, it caused me to reflect on several areas of my life. As I started reflecting, I concluded that there was no possible way I could ever surrender all. There was no way I could completely give over every single interest and desire I had. I just couldn’t see the possibility of surrendering every area of my life. If you’re anything like I was, you may be struggling with the same thoughts. The good news is, I was very wrong.
My eyes began to open the more I started spending time in worship. I began to see things from a different perspective the more I started spending time in God’s Word. There’s scripture found in John 14: 16-17 where Jesus talks about the Holy Spirit. He says, “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever; the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him, but you do know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you”. A helper is defined as a person who helps someone. Helpers essentially take on the role of helping those in need of help. To help is to assist in making it easier for someone to do something by offering one’s services or resources. What a revelation!
There are so many things I have tried to fix in my strength when the Helper is ready and willing to assist in making it easier for me. All I need to do is ask for help. So now, those areas of struggle I may have felt were impossible to surrender have now become not only possible but doable. Getting to a place of total and complete surrender is not a one-and-done. It’s an everyday process. It’s a lifestyle. Surrendering all is not picking and choosing which areas I’ll allow God to have control of but more so allowing Him to have control of them all. In my discovery of learning more about the Helper (Holy Spirit), I constantly remind myself that He is always there. He’s there in my good moments, and bad. He’s there in my ups and downs. He’s there in the highs and He’s there in the lows. Maybe there’s something you want to ask for help with or need to surrender. I want to encourage you to pause and take a moment to do that right now…
Ask the Holy Spirit “Help me surrender this to you”. Whatever it may be, just simply ask. He’s more than willing and He is more than able. Welcome to the journey of surrender!
