Absolute Surrender

Memory verse: Any of you who does not give up everything he has, cannot be my disciple (Luke 14:33)

What kinds of adjustments are required to position your life to be used by God? Trying to answer that question is like trying to list all the things God might ask you to do. The list could be endless. However, I can point you to some examples and give you some general categories of adjustments God might ask of you. Adjustments may be required in one or more of the following areas:

  • In your circumstances—job, home, finances, and others

  • In your relationships— family, friends, business associates, and others

  • In your thinking—prejudices, methods, your potential, about your past, and others

  • In your commitments— to family, church, job, plans, tradition, and others

  • In your actions— how you pray, give, serve, and others

  • In your beliefs— about God, His purposes, His ways, your relationship with Him, and others

The list could go on and on. The major adjustment will come at the point of acting on your faith. When you face a crisis of belief, you must decide what you believe about God. That mental decision may be easy. The hard part is adjusting your life to God and taking an action that demonstrates your faith. You may be called to attempt things only God can do, whereas before you may have attempted only what you knew you could accomplish.

God frequently requires adjustments in areas of your life that you have never considered or been open to in the past. You may have heard someone say something like this: “Don’t ever tell God something you don’t want to do. That is what He will ask you to do.” God is not looking for ways to make your life difficult. However, He intends to be the Lord of your life. When you identify a place where you refuse to allow His lordship, that is a place He will go to work. He is seeking absolute surrender. God may or may not require you to do the thing you identified, but He will keep working until you are willing for Him to be Lord of all. Remember, because God loves you, His will is always best! Any adjustment God expects you to make is for your good. As you follow Him, the time may come when your life and future may depend on your adjusting quickly to God’s directives. 

You don’t adjust your life to a concept. You align your life to God. You alter your viewpoints to resemble His. You change your ways to be like His ways. After you make the necessary adjustments, He will tell you what to do next to obey Him. When you follow Him, you will experience Him doing through you something only He can do.

The following are statements made by men who were completely surrendered to the will of God. Notice the life adjustments that they were willing to make: 

  • Jim Elliot (died as a missionary to Quichua Indians in South America): “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

  • Bob Pierce (established World Vision and Samaritans Purse): “Let my heart be broken by the things that break the heart of God.”

  • C. T. Studd (missionary to China, India, and Africa): “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice is too great for me to give for Him.”

You cannot stay where you are and go with God in obedience to His will. Adjustments must come first. Then you can follow in obedience. Keep in mind that the God who calls you is also the One who will enable you to do His will. When you are willing to surrender everything in your life to the lordship of Christ, you, like Elisha, will find the adjustments are well worth the reward of experiencing God. If you have not come to the place in your life where you have surrendered all to His lordship, decide today to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23).