Absolute Surrender

The condition for obtaining God’s full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.

Absolute Surrender, Andrew Murray

Murray tells the story of where he got these words, absolute surrender.  He asked a trainer in the church, a “godly worker,” what the greatest need was in the church.  “Absolute surrender to God is the one thing.”  A total and complete submission. 

If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.

It is in God’s nature to expect this; everything He created surrenders to His will – the sun, moon, stars, flowers, trees, grass.  The same is expected of us.  But this implies so much.  Can we trust God fully, can we completely give up our will, our self?  No, of course, not alone; this will not come from our desire, our will.  God will work it in us.

When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and keep it.

Do we believe this?  Do we trust God for this?  He allows the sun to shine on us daily; why would He not allow His life to shine on us daily as well?  Yes, such a life of absolute surrender offers its difficulties – even impossible without God having done the work in us.  But it is the life for which we are destined, for which we were designed.  Is there a better understanding of a meaningful life than to live a life as was intended for us to live?

…a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day, and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer – that is a life of absolute surrender.

It is a life of doing what God wants you to do, and letting God work what He wants to do through us.  It is a life of simple, childlike trust:

Matthew 18: 3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Yet, we aren’t starting anew – as a child to be formed. 

…acknowledge that you have grieved the Holy Spirit by your self-will, self-confidence, and self-effort.  Bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and ask him to break the heart and to bring you into the dust before Him.

Nothing less will do.  Nothing else will bring forth the change necessary, a change from a life of pride, of feeling in control, to a life of humility and surrender:

…nothing will help you except another life which must come in. …as the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out.

We are born again.

Conclusion

Come and cast this self-life and flesh-life at the feet of Jesus.  Then trust Him.

Jesus surrendered unto death.  If we live like Christ, with complete surrender, we will die like Christ.  We will die to self, which appears to us from this side of absolute surrender as death, but from the other side of absolute surrender will appear, as it did to Christ, as glory.