What Is Surrender Anyway?

I don’t know what you are facing today, but I know what it’s like to face circumstances that are out of your control. Life can be swirling around us, it can be overwhelming and hard. We long for peace over a situation, but we try to hold on tightly for control because we feel we need to take action… that we need to do something!

But what if what we really need to do is surrender it to God?

After my husband’s brain surgery, it became very clear to us that every plan we had made and so carefully crafted was wrecked. And every blueprint we had created for our happy, healthy, normal life together was thrown out the window. We felt lost. We felt out of control. And there was no choice to make but to surrender.

In that painful process of letting go, what we found was something quite different than what we expected. We found that through letting go, we actually gained something. Through releasing control, we began to acknowledge that the control we thought we had over our lives, over our future, our security, our health, all of it had actually been a facade.

And all of a sudden, this word surrender wasn’t as bad as it seemed…

I hope you enjoy this first session of my I Give Up study and consider joining me and the communities at FaithGateway & StudyGateway for all five-weeks of the study, October 7 – November 10! Sign up here to get started with us soon!

Watch I Give Up Session One: What is Surrender, Anyway?

From the I Give Up Study Guide

INTRODUCTION

Tisha is a cute baby girl. Curly jet-black hair, dimples, and a smile that lights up a room. She also has a grip like a bear trap, and when she gets hold of a toy, she won’t let go. Her young vocabulary is limited, but one word she has mastered is “Mine!” Daddy and Mommy are trying to teach her to share, but she finds it much more natural to cling on to everything for herself. This skill was not taught; it seems to come naturally.

Gerrit is nine and loves soccer. His coach has explained to the whole team (and the parents) that this level of soccer is all about learning the game and not about keeping score. But Gerrit and the other kids on the team are good at basic math and they tally every goal in their minds.

They quietly whisper, “We are ahead by two,” or “That was my third goal,” and with clear disappointment, “We lost by twelve goals today!” No matter what the coach says, these kids keep score, want to win, and never wave the white flag.

Ashleigh wants to be on the homecoming court. She is not conducting a formal campaign; that would be too obvious. What she is doing is exerting all of her charm and social skills to get the other kids to like her enough to cast a vote in her direction. She is leveraging every friendship and relational connection to tip the scales in her favor and help her wear that sparkling crown at halftime during the upcoming football game.

Sure, kids act this way because they are still in that formational time of life when they are learning how the world works. Once we become adults we cast aside childish ways and live with humility, gracious generosity, and natural surrender. We spontaneously and naturally serve people, put God first, and stop expecting and demanding our own way.

Right?

Wrong! The truth is, grown up people can look just like bigger versions of Tisha, Gerrit, and Ashleigh. We want what we want.

Winning still matters. We navigate ways to get the crown, end up first, and gain the praise of our peers.

Living with humility does not come naturally to any of us. Willingly putting ourselves second or third does not seem to make sense. Surrendering to God’s will is a learned skill that takes a lifetime to develop. If we are honest, the idea of surrender can seem foreign, unnatural, even unattractive. At this very moment, you might even be wondering, Why am I doing a five-session study about surrender?

The more we take our lives and place them before God, the more we will be changed from the inside out.

TALK ABOUT IT

Tell about a time in your childhood, teenage years, or adult life when you were not willing to surrender. As you look back, how was this effort to resist surrender a good choice or poor choice?

We think we know what is best so we ask God to help us with our plans on our terms.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR SESSION ONE

1. What comes to your mind when you hear the word surrender? What are some possible negative connotations and what are some possible positive meanings?

A decision to study God’s Word is an investment in your spiritual life and an active choice to nourish your soul.

Read this passage in the Bible

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship. 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. — Romans 12:1–2 NIV

2. What does it mean to renew our minds so that they are not lining up with the ways of the world that are relentless and all around us? What is one way you have learned to renew, change, or reorient your thinking to line up with God’s ways of thinking?
3. What are some of the things that clamor for your time and attention that keep you from reading the Bible regularly and growing deeper in your faith? What could you do to control or tame some of these things so you can spend more regular time reading God’s Word and growing in faith?

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. — Ephesians 2:8 NIV

4. What are some of the things you surrendered, gave up, or quit when you received the grace of Jesus? This surrender was not an effort to gain God’s grace by works, but a humble response to God’s free gift of love, friendship, and forgiveness. How has your life been better because you surrendered one of these things?

When we let go we discover that our plans for the future, security, and certain health were all a façade.

5. Tell about some of the ways you try to be in control of your life, your present, and your future. How can these attitudes and actions be dangerous for your life and faith?
6. What is the difference between asking God to bless and affirm what we want and humbly surrendering to His will for our life? Give an example of what this can look like in our lives. We like things our way. We like to be in control.

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ. — Philippians 3:7-8 NIV

7. Laura shared her story of uninvited, unexpected, and unavoidable surrender. Tell about a time when your plans were wrecked or your blueprints were tossed in the paper shredder. How was God present with you through this season of your life?
8. What is one area of your life where you need to surrender and let go of your will and your ways? What is the circumstance to which you are holding so tightly? What is in the center of that clenched fist? What do you struggle most to let go of? The first step toward the Savior is always surrender.

CLOSING PRAYER

Spend time in prayer, in any of the following directions:

• Ask the Holy Spirit to show you areas in your life where you need to surrender, give up, and bow down to God’s will and ways.
• Thank God for how He has been near you in times of uninvited and unavoidable surrender.
• Celebrate the beautiful reality that God is on the throne. Rejoice that even when we feel desperate, fearful, or uncertain, He is in charge of the universe and all the details of our life. When we let go we actually gain something we could never find if we hold on to what we have.

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Your Turn

Let us know what you thought of the first session of I Give Up. What does surrender look like in your life? Come share on our blog.