by Leon

Everyone is told by the world to pilot their own life. They are told to live true to themselves and to let their hearts be their guide. The Bible on the other hand tells everyone to step aside and let God guide them. They are told by the Bible to be true to God and that our own hearts can deceive us.

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” – Jeremiah 17:9

Something I’ve come to learn, especially recently, is the hope found in surrender. Often we try and we try to lead our own lives, seek after our own desires, and thoroughly plan our own future. But what I have come to learn is that the best thing we can do for ourselves is to actually stop trying so hard to guide ourselves. Instead, I’ve come to realize true peace is found only in surrendering to having a confident trust in God.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?” – Matthew 6:25-27

We have a God that knows all, while we ourselves know so little. We can find absolute assurance when we surrender to God. He promises to guide us and clothe us and feed us and care for us. We can have the utmost confidence in trusting in Him. But when we try to follow our own heart and pilot our own life, a good majority of the time we end up in disaster.

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.” – Psalm 23:1-2

When we become born again the first thing we must do is to surrender. We acknowledge that our ways have led us down a path of sin and destruction. We acknowledge our only hope is surrendering our sin and everything we are to Christ. And after that, as Christians, we begin to go through a daily life of learning how to surrender more and more of ourselves.

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” – Matthew 16: 24

Surrender is not easy. We have our own thoughts and hopes and aspirations. It’s never easy to give up what our heart wants and it’s not always easy to trust in something we cannot see right in front of us. That’s why it’s a daily surrender. You might not be able to surrender everything all at once, but what part of your life can you surrender to God today?