Surrender“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.” (Isaiah 53:3) In the 1987 movie Surrender starring Michael Caine and Sally Field, a wealthy writer who had a series of costly ex-wives and expensive girlfriends pretends to be a broke novelist to see if the woman he loves wants him for himself or just for his money. We often think of surrender as losing something, but when Jesus willingly went to the cross so that we could have the abundant God kind of life in John 10:10, we didn’t lose but gained everything that heaven has to offer because it was the ultimate act of surrender. Surrender is the act of yielding oneself to the power, control, authority, or influence of another. Jesus showed us what sweet surrender is, as He was totally surrendered to God body, soul and spirit. All of us are surrendered to something whether we realize it or not. Some of us surrender to busyness, to SELF, to money, to pleasure, to drugs, to rock n roll, to sexual sins or whatever is more powerful and more important to us than God. But Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [money].” First of all, Jesus surrendered His Holy Trinity position as God the Son in heaven to come to a world that didn’t even know who He was. Isaiah 53:3 prophesied that the Messiah was despised and rejected. Jesus surrendered His will to His heavenly Father every day when He walked on earth as He obeyed the Word. Jesus again surrendered and sweat agonizing drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane when He prayed, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup [of affliction] away from me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Then He physically surrendered when He went to the cross to be mocked, whipped and nailed, knowing that all the sins of the world would be laid on Him and He would suffer excruciating pains like no one else had. His loving act of surrender, however, led to ultimate victory for all of us over the devil, sin, sickness, poverty, oppression, and death. When we pledge our allegiance to Jesus and surrender ALL that we have to God as He did by living in obedience to the Word of God, the power of the flesh, the world, and the devil will be broken, and the victory that was paid for by His precious Blood is ours.Copyright © 2003 Eddy Ministries. All rights reserved. Subscribe/Unsubscribe: eddyn@earthlink.net
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