Surrender is a basic part of worship. Without surrender, you cannot truly worship. Our problem is that surrender isn't a nice sounding word. Surrender is when a defeated army gives the victor its guns. Surrender is when a criminal comes out with his hands up. Our culture teaches us to never give up, never stop going, and not to quit until we have it all. But without surrender, we can never really worship God.

Surrendering to God is giving ourselves completely to him. It means realizing that God can handle it better than we can, and putting him in charge. A lot of us can realize that God knows what to do, but it is very hard for us to come to a point where we let him. Three things get in our way. Fear, pride, and confusion.

Have you ever seen a group do a trust fall? It's where someone in the group closes their eyes and falls backwards into the waiting arms of the group. For some people it is easy to fall back; for others it is harder. It depends on how much the person falling is willing to let go of control and trust that the group will catch them. I've seen a group drop someone. They didn't care about each other and didn't pay attention. Some people fear that God will let them fall, but when we understand how much he loves us, we begin to learn that he cares more about us than we care about ourselves.

Our pride also gets in the way. Sometimes it is hard to realize we are not in charge. We don't like to say that we don't know everything, or that we don't always make the best decisions on our own. Often, we will admit this but refuse to act on it. We say that God is wise, powerful, and loving, but then we don't look to him for help or accept his advice when it comes. We want to fulfill our own plans for our life, never asking the God who created us how to make ourselves complete. Pride is the first sin that humans committed. We need to learn to look to God, who is bigger than us, for the answers.

Surrender may still sound pretty bad to you. If you are confused about what surrender is, then it will be hard to give your life over to God and truly worship. Surrender to God is not bowing before a slave driver. It is letting God complete you. It is doing what he asks, knowing that he knows me better than I know myself. It is doing whatever he calls us to, knowing that as God, he has information that we don't. Surrender is accepting that sometimes what we have to do may not make sense, but trusting that God knows the right way to do it.

The Bible tells us what happens if we are willing to surrender. We can start getting peace. Peace about what to do. Peace about our conflicts with others. Peace about our past and future decisions. We are also then used to do mighty things for God. Our lives become exciting and complete, but with a peace that makes no sense.

The fact is that in your life you will surrender to something, and if it isn't God, it doesn't look very good. Some people surrender to money when they will do whatever it takes to get it. Some people will surrender to the will of others when they do things to get their approval. Some people will even surrender to chaos, by being driven from something different at each moment. If you don't choose to surrender to God, your life will be frustrating and disappointing to you.

Surrender is not a once in a lifetime thing. We must choose to surrender every day, and for most of us every minute. We have to surrender each decision to God, because as humans we tend to wander from a decision when the emotion wears off or we get worried again. Only by continually choosing to give ourselves to God can we fulfill our first purpose of worship and move on to living a complete life.

Thinking about my purpose:
Know. Surrender is the heart of worship.
Remember. "Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes." -Romans 6.13b (TEV)
Think about it. What in my life do I need to surrender to God?