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Transcript:
Hello, welcome to Walking in Step with God. I am Steve McDonald. Today we explore the topic “Surrender” as we continue our series “Grow Deeper in Faith”. Today, let’s discuss the idea of what it means to surrender our hearts, our minds, and our lives to God.
We live in a society that is focused on self. We are surrounded by influences that suggest to us that we should focus on enriching our lives and living life to its fullest potential. There are signals all around us to pursue wealth, power, fame, and social status. Don’t get me wrong, our culture also encourages being kind and giving. We should always look for opportunities to give to others in need. Today, however, I want to drill down into what it means to modify your lifestyle from seeking ways to stay in complete control of your destiny to surrendering it to God.
When I speak of surrendering to God, it is not a suggestion to have no goals, hopes, or dreams. Instead, it is the idea that we may have goals, hopes, and dreams, but we yield to and seek God’s will for our lives. Surrendering to God means prioritizing His will for our life above our own will.
Today, let’s explore 3 reasons why we should surrender our lives to God. Let’s learn how our lives can be forever changed by making the decision that God’s will and plans come first and foremost, even if they are not what we had in mind for our lives.
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Before we dive in, let’s take a quick break. I will be right back.
Welcome back. Let’s continue in our discussion of 3 reasons that we should surrender our lives to God.
#1 God’s plans are perfect
Have you ever been in a situation where you had the best intentions to carry out a plan but despite all of your research and planning, there were still obstacles or surprises that interfered with your plan? This has happened with everyone, simply because it is impossible for us to know everything.
The good news is that God DOES know everything. He knows everything about you, everyone you know, and every single detail of your life. God knows you intimately, more than you even know yourself.
With this infinite wisdom, God and only God knows the best plans for your life. He knows your strengths and weaknesses. He knows of the gifts He has planted in you, even the gifts you have yet to learn.
I am not suggesting that you not have goals and dreams, but God knows the best possible plans for your life. Many of us pursue hopes and dreams, unaware of where our efforts may lead, but imagine if we can learn of the plans that God knows would bring us joy, purpose, and fulfillment. If we bring our goals and dreams before God, I believe God will lead us to the best possible version of plans that may also include the goals and dreams we had in mind. Only God knows the perfect plans for our lives.
#2 God rewards the faithful
When we surrender our lives to God, He rewards us for our faithfulness. God has given each and every one of us the power to choose. We all have free will. We all have the ability to choose right from wrong, good from evil. More simply, we all have the will to choose our own path in life.
Have you ever had a goal and dream that you pursued with all of your being only to learn it did not have the outcome you had hoped for? We all have experienced at one point or another, especially before our walk with God.
Even in the context of living our lives day to day, we all have the ability to choose how we show up for ourselves and others around us. We can choose to be giving, loving, nurturing, and supportive. We can choose to be selfish, hateful, indifferent, and hostile. In all of these ways, God allows us to shape every moment of our lives.
When we decide to surrender our lives to God, we surrender our hearts in the process. Knowing we have chosen His way over our own, God rewards those who choose His way over the world’s way. How does He do this? There are countless ways. God offers protection, influence, favor, guidance, direction, and peace just to name a few. God will transform our lives in return for placing our trust in Him.
#3 Your life will be transformed
As I just mentioned, when we surrender our lives to God, our life will be transformed in ways we never thought possible. Before I surrendered to God, my life was subject to the randomness of the world. My circumstances were subject to unknown factors that I could not possibly have known – sometimes good, but sometimes bad. Life was sometimes up and sometimes down, but when it was down I had to navigate those times without the peace and calm that I have now. I am not suggesting that life will no longer have challenges when we surrender to God, but I am saying that God’s presence will be made known in the form of peace and calm on your heart when you could otherwise be full of angst and dismay. In the midst of challenges, God’s presence will be made known in comforting you as well as His influence into the challenges at hand.
My life has been transformed in so many ways since I decided to surrender to God. When I make plans, I make them, yielding to God’s will. In doing so, I know and trust God will orchestrate events to be aligned with His plans for me. I no longer worry about the unknown, because I have decided to leave what is unknown to me in God’s hands AND seek out His direction and instructions.
As I wrote this message, I confess that following a job layoff, so many aspects of how I would live my life were suddenly in the realm of the unknown. Since the time of my layoff, I can honestly say that there has been favor and influence in my professional life in such a way that I am always provided what I need to make ends meet until I see what is next in my career. I have made plans for the next year, but I have brought them before God also letting Him know that I yield to His will first and foremost. I have absolutely no idea what the outcome will be for these plans, but I can already observe signs of His influence and favor with these plans AND I can sense the areas of my plans that don’t seem to have the same level of favor. I believe He is directing me and guiding me to a transformed life – the likes of which I have never experienced until now. I place my complete trust in Him through this transitional process in my life.
Wrap Up
In today’s message, we explored 3 reasons to surrender to God. We discussed the fact that God’s plans are perfect. God knows every single thing, and as a result, He also knows what is best for us. God knows so much more than we possibly can or ever will. We discussed the fact that God rewards the faithful. When we do decide to surrender to God, He rewards us in so many ways. Surrendering our lives to God will yield protection, influence, and favor from God, just to name a few. Lastly, we learned that our life will be completely and utterly transformed when we dedicate it to God and surrender to Him. We cannot possibly know all of the benefits of surrendering to God, but we know that He loves us more than we can understand and comprehend. It is from this love that we can trust that God has our best intentions in mind. We may as well put our trust in the One who knows us better than we know ourselves!
If you have not already, I invite you to surrender your life to God. Yes, you have full agency to make your own decisions in your life, but why not hand your plans to the One who knows all things? Don’t waste another minute! Surrender your life to God today!
Are you interested in discovering more about the guidance offered in this message? Learn more in the companion article Going Deeper with the Word: Surrender
