In military terms, surrender is failure – the vanquished power bowing to their vanquisher – but surrender can also mean to yield, like one dancer to another, like one lover to another. It is this lover’s surrender that we offer to God. We are not vanquished; we yield to his love. Surrendering to God doesn’t happen overnight, and today I want to lay out some key steps in moving from rigidity to fluidity, and from defensiveness to trust.
Step 1: Abandoning false images of God
It is only possible to surrender to God if we trust him completely, which can be difficult if our ideas about God are confused. The first and most crucial step in learning the art of surrender is coming to a true understanding of God – that he is only good, all the time.
The goodness of God is all-too-often misrepresented in church, where he is spoken of as the author of sufferings and trials. I take the view of the apostle James, who wrote of temptations and tests (which are translations of the same word in the Greek) as something God helps us through but never orchestrates. James 1: 13,
‘When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone’
James goes on to assert that God is always and only the author of good things. James 1:16,
‘Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.’
God does not change like shifting shadows; he is not mercurial, handing out blessing one moment and suffering the next. Jesus never ministered to a crowd and singled out some for healing while making others suffer to teach them a lesson. A simple, childlike faith relies on a clear and singular image of God – the one we see in Jesus. John 14:9,
‘Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.’
Believers have drunk a concoction of contradictory doctrines, leaving many confused about the nature of God and his activity in our lives. I used to be confused too, and can say from experience that the first step towards peace is accepting the good intentions of God towards each of us. The simplest and most effective way to do that is to revisit the Gospels and spend time dwelling on the nature of Jesus.
Step 2 – practicing the presence of God
It is the practice of God’s presence that leads to peace. Intellectual debate, theologising, and attending a calendar of church meetings are not substitutes for an organic journey of spiritual discovery.
“I cannot imagine how religious persons can live satisfied without the practice of the presence of GOD. For my part I keep myself retired with Him in the depth of centre of my soul as much as I can; and while I am so with Him I fear nothing; but the least turning from Him is insupportable.”
― Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God.
The presence of God is the crucible of theology. In his company, false conceptions of the divine nature are burnt up and our hearts know his goodness. An ever-deepening connection with the Holy Spirit is a deep dive into love, where we learn to hear his voice, know his leading, and receive his comfort.
In my experience, the presence of God is innately loving. I feel safe (he is my protector), I feel understood (he is the God of all compassion), I feel humbled (he is the Great I Am), and I feel grateful (he loves me, died for me, and calls me brother). I also find inspiration, receive answers to questions, see my circumstances with clarity, and gain wisdom. There are times when he redirects me, showing me a better way to do things, and there are times when all I can do is sink to my knees in awe.
In his presence, we are continually refined by love. The presence of God is the crucible of our hearts. Proverbs 17:3,
‘The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold,
but the Lord tests the heart.’
How is silver tested in a crucible? By the application of heat, which changes its state from solid to liquid, ridding it of impurities. The same is true for gold. It is the heat, and the metal’s response to that heat, which purifies it. As for the Lord, it is his presence that acts as the purifier of our hearts. That is how the writer is using the analogy. Just as the silver and gold are surrounded by and saturated by heat, when we are surrounded by and saturated by the loving presence of God, we are changed.
Step 3 – Relinquishing control
Once we understand that God can be trusted, we can choose to lean back into his love. The dynamics of surrender were laid out for us by Jesus, when promising his disciples peace. John 14: 27,
‘Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.’
Paul also wrote of ‘allowing’ peace to reign. Philippians 4: 6-7,
‘Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.’
We don’t claim peace by force – it already lives within us. Instead of seizing and proclaiming it, we allow it to flow; we yield to its energy, which is a letting go rather than a putting on; a surrender of our will to God. If Jesus urged us to allow peace to flow, it’s in our power to either abide in peace or to resist it, just as it is possible to yield to or quench the Spirit of God. In other words, our hand is on the faucet and all we need to do is open it wide.
Readers who want to dig into this in more detail can listen to my personal account of yielding to peace and how doing so helped me recover from acute anxiety.
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