I Surrender

How can we know God better? How can we have a closer relationship with Him? How can we have a victorious life in Christ every day of our lives?

C. Phillip Hinerman writes...

I have found that to have a victorious life, I need to surrender my life to God every day. “Surrender” is not the most popular word in the evangelical vocabulary. We tend to shy away from it. But when we use other words in lieu of “surrender,” we compromise the central thesis of the need to surrender. The Apostle Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31 KJV). It is the daily-ness of full surrender to God that leads us to a victorious life in Christ.

For full surrender to God, here are seven steps that we can take daily:

1) I surrender my family and friends. I do not give up on them; I simply surrender them to the will of God so that even if their wills conflict with the Father's will, I will do only that which God calls me to do.

2) I surrender my ambitions, my job, my career, and my future. This means I am willing to go anywhere the He wants me to go and to take on any tasks that He wants me to take on.

3) I surrender my reputation, what people think of me and say about me. I need to be willing to care more about what God thinks of me than what any person thinks of me.

4) I surrender my pocketbook, my possessions, all that I claim as mine. I am willing not only to tithe, but to also give God control over 100% of what I have. Then I can say that I no longer own anything - I have given up all of it to God. Everything I have is his.

5) I surrender my social life. I surrender my recreations, my pleasures, my amusements, as well as all my personal, casual, and work relationships.

6) I surrender my daily schedule. I give God not only my days and hours but also my total life and all my time.

7) Most important, I surrender my will, my very self. And if I can do this, then I don't have to worry about the first six steps. This one step takes in all the others, and this surrendered life is what leads us to daily victory.

What about you? Are you living a victorious life in Christ? Take time to surrender completely to God.

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C. Phillip Hinerman, was the senior pastor at Park Avenue United Methodist Church, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for 36 years. He retired as lead pastor in 1988, and died March 22, 2001 in Greensboro, N.C. He was 82.