Last year I wrote the first installment of a three-part series called “Slow Down”, and maybe I took my own advice a bit too literally as it has taken almost a year to write part 2! 🤦🏾‍♂️ However, you might say I have a fairly good excuse as on the 6th of June last year, at 7:58 AM my first son was born! In true Nigerian  fashion we gave him 4 names: Elijah Moses Chibuikem Edemekong.

Following this euphoric experience I have been debating about what to write for part 2, but as I read one of my devotionals God showed me something I had never seen in a passage I had read many times before . Now, if you have read Slow Down part 1 (click the link if not) you will know that in such scenarios I tend to quickly rustle up something and share it on Whatsapp. Again, I felt God tell me to slow down, so here we are.

surrender to give oneself up, as into the power of another; submit or yield.

Surrender is sometimes perceived a taboo word in society today, due to the negative connotations it can carry such as defeat at war or being arrested by the police; nobody wants to be seen to surrender as it is often seen as evidence of weakness. However, I would suggest that the issue is not whether you choose to surrender, rather is it what or who you choose to surrender to that matters. As the above definition explains, surrender is about giving yourself up or submitting to the power of another, and throughout the Bible we are called to surrender to God, but why? We find one potential answer to to this question in 1 Peter 5:6, which says “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.” 

God know’s that for us to live lives of significance we need to place ourselves under the One who is truly significant; we have to give Him full control of our lives before we can truly experience His blessing and beautification. He wants to elevate us but first we have to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. We have to surrender to Him. One of my favorite chapters in the bible is Matthew 6. I love it because Jesus is delivering bar after bar of flames in the middle of His renowned Sermon on the Mount, and in verse 33 He says “… seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” This is how it works in God’s kingdom. God calls us to seek Him first. We have to surrender before significance. 

significant sufficiently great or important to be worthy of attention; noteworthy

If we are honest, a lot of the time we want the win before the work; the shine before the sweat; the glory before the grind. I too am guilty of this on occasion, so using examples from the lives of  three of the most outstanding leaders in the bible, I hope to clearly illustrate why we need to surrender before we gain significance, as well as present the benefits of doing so.

Moses

One of my favorite characters in the bible is Moses. This was a man who literally spoke with God face to face (Exodus 33:11) and knew His ways not just His acts (Psalm 103:7). In Exodus chapter 3, we witness the well known inaugural meeting between God and Moses where he is called and commissioned. This encounter continues in chapter 4, which is where we find our first example of surrender:

The LORD said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the LORD said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand – Exodus 4:2-4

Moses didn’t ask questions when God told him to throw His staff on the ground, and God did not provide any explanations until after Moses had obeyed (Exodus 4:5 ESV).

We can learn so much from these verses about immediate obedience, and maybe that will be the topic of a future post, however what I want to focus on here is Moses’ act of throwing his staff on the ground. This is a clear illustration of what it looks like to surrender to God and is completely applicable to you and I. I say that because Moses already had the staff when He met with God, and when God calls you He wants what you already have in your hand. He wants you to surrender all that you have to Him, and in doing so take it from realm of the natural into the supernatural.

Following this encounter between God and Moses, we are told that:

Moses took his wife and his sons and had them ride on a donkey, and went back to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the staff of God in his hand. – Exodus 4:20

When I read this passage a few weeks ago it completely blew my mind as it plainly demonstrated what happens when we surrender to God. Before Moses threw the staff on the ground it was his staff but thereafter it is referred to as “the staff of God“. This is exactly what God does when we surrender what we have to Him: He takes it from the ordinary to the extraordinary. The item (staff) is the same, but the owner is different. Moses then used this staff to perform many miracles including turning the River Nile to blood (Exodus 7:20), sending thunder, hail and fire (Exodus 9:23), calling swarms of locusts (Exodus 10:13), and maybe most notably, parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14:16).

Elijah

Elijah is another of my favorite characters in the bible, so much so that I named my first son after him. Elijah was a man who had a similarly remarkable walk with God. The bible tells us that he controlled the weather on one occasion, declaring when it would and wouldn’t rain (James 5:17), he commanded fire to come down from heaven (1 Kings 18:37-38), and he did not even see death, but was escorted alive to heaven by chariots of fire (2 Kings 2:11). Elijah’s life was characterized by signs and wonders, and his encounter with the Widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:10-16) provides us with another illustration of the miraculous following obedient surrender:

And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.” And she said, “As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.” And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.” – 1 Kings 17:11-13

Again we see this recurring theme: God wants to use what you already have in your hand. Furthermore, this also reminds us that it is important to know and to be honest about what you have, like the Widow in this story. She knew exactly what she had, however small it may have seemed. Nonetheless, Elijah still asked her to bake him a cake first because he understood the principle Jesus teaches in the aforementioned passage in Matthew 6:33: God first. You must surrender before significance.

What follows this discourse is an amazing picture of obedience being met by God’s faithfulness:

And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah. – 1 Kings 17:14-15

Again, God honors the Widow’s obedient surrender, turning what would have been a paltry final meal for herself and son into an abundant supply of food that fed herself, her son and Elijah for many days. When we give to God first and surrender what we have to Him He takes it further then we ever could have done on our own. He gives it significance.

Jesus

Any discussion of surrender without mention of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, would be incomplete at best. Whilst the lives of Moses and Elijah provide us with excellent illustrations of this principle, the life of Jesus gives us the most complete and powerful picture. Jesus came to earth as a man forsaking the glory of heaven (Philippians 2:5-8), lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died (Luke 23:46). He rose from the grave after 3 days (Matthew 28:5-7) proving that He was the Son God (Mark 15:39), and in doing so enabled us to be reconciled to God (Romans 5:10). This was a life completely surrendered to the will of  God (Mark 14:36).

In His ministry on earth, Jesus frequently demonstrated the principle of surrender to His disciples. An example of one such an occasion can be found in Mark’s gospel, where the disciples are squabbling about who among themselves about who of them was the greatest:

And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” – Mark 9:33-35

In the kingdom of God, greatness comes from servant-hood, submission and surrender

Jesus rightly tells the disciples that their perspective is completely wrong. They are looking at things from a secular perspective rather than a kingdom perspective, which is a trap any of us can easily fall into (3 of the disciples engaging in this argument had just witnessed Jesus’ transfiguration, where Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Him (Mark 9:2-8)). This reminds us that we have to be watchful and remember that in the kingdom of God, greatness comes from servant-hood, submission and surrender. Furthermore, Jesus amplifies this point in the following chapter:

And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:42-45

In saying this Jesus does 2 things. First, He emphasizes that fact that we cannot allow society’s perception and practices to cause us to miss out on the fundamental biblical principle that greatness and significance come from serving and surrender.  Second, He reminds the disciples of the reason He came to earth which was to surrender His life for you and I. This point is wonderfully elucidated in the Epistles, where Paul writes of Jesus:

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. – Philippians 2:8-11

This is the best possible exposition of what we have been considering thus far. The result of this ultimate act of surrender on the cross, is that Jesus was given ultimate significance: the name above all names. God calls us to follow this example and obediently surrender our lives to Him (Matthew 16:24-25). Only then will we truly live lives of significance.

What Now?

Recently God has increasingly been speaking to me about being intentional, because He is intentional. He doesn’t do anything just for the sake of it, but always has a purpose. This reality categorically applies to what we have been pondering in this post, and as such I am inclined to conclude that significance is not the end goal when God calls us to surrender, fruitfulness is.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” – John 12:24

God wants us to surrender everything to Him so He can give it significance and cause it to be fruitful. Whether it is our finances, our families, our jobs or our talents, God wants to take it and make it fruitful, however what God really wants from us is our lives. Jesus died on the cross for people not possessions, which He confirms in John’s gospel where He says:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. – John 12:32

In Slow Down part 1 we looked at the importance of today and, if you haven’t done so already, I would really encourage you to choose to surrender your life to God today.

David