What does Surrender look like in person?
When we’ve learned to trust that God is love and goodness for all, offering freedom to even the most heinous of individuals, we can put faith in HIM that by His grace He will make us into sincerely selfless, loving individuals.
Below is an apt description of what surrender looks like.
I’ve highlighted in red the section that has been on my mind ever since I read these verses for the first time.
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind.
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” (Philippians 2:1 – 7)
Another translation I’ve read for the verses I’ve highlighted reads:
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.
To me, the hardest part that we as humans struggle doing, is “regarding one another more important than [ourselves].”
Surrender WILL reset the mind, literally giving us NEW thinking
When it comes to surrender, in explaining this to pre-believers or believers that have not experienced it, the certainty we can confirm is that one’s mental disposition will change.
Surrendering is about pursuing the impossible.
Pursuing the impossible becomes our nature when partnered and abiding in Jesus Christ.
Perhaps most important about the concept of surrender, is that the only way a person can come to know it and begin that journey is through one MASSIVE, DECISIVE act that goes against their survival instincts.
Breaking down this idea further, we’re talking about:
(i) an act that God has led us to that defies what the world and our own conscience is certain about.
I committed to my first proper motion of surrender to God via a course called The Freedom Pillars in June 2016, which dealt with profound issues that the world would classify as permissible.
As I said earlier, this is a story for another time, but there are some highlights I would like to share.
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