Thursday, June 20th, 2024
The Lord spoke these two words to me recently and it’s something I have been thinking about and using as a gauge for myself. He said, “What is your surrender threshold?” Or in other words, what does it take to get us to surrender? Do we only ever go down fighting or have we learned to surrender with just one word?
One of the comparisons that came to me as I was pondering this question are all the different ways dogs react to each other or people. Some dogs will sprawl out on the ground and roll over as if it’s instinct. Other dogs size up the situation and establish the fact that they are ready to attack whatever they are threatened by. There are plenty of things that are worth the fight, our families, our freedoms and our morals to name a few. But when God asked me this I knew He was talking about my ability to surrender and trust Him. As one who is walking out of a life of fear and control issues, my surrender threshold is higher than I want it to be.
1 Peter 5:6-7 says:
6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
This is where I am headed. This is what I want my response to be in every aspect of my life. The words “humble yourselves” in the original Greek (Strongs) means to depress, to humiliate (in condition or heart). This is the dog that rolls over and says, “Yes Lord, I will go where You go and say what You say.”
James 4:7 says:
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God…
The word “submit” means to be under obedience or subdue unto (Strongs). This is not the dog that digs its feet into the ground and says, “I don’t care who you are or what you have for me, I don’t want any part of it.”
Final Thoughts…
It’s never a good thing to surrender to immorality, materialism, fears, envy, wickedness or anger. The only thing God created us to surrender to was Him. For some of us, it takes some hard lessons and some chiseling to get us to that point. We worry that we may lose our identity or individuality if we let God steer our ship. The thing we don’t fully understand is that He is the one that created us and wrote an incredible book for our lives that will fulfill every passion and every desire He created within us. Lord, we don’t want to miss out on any of Your plans because our surrender threshold was too high for too long. Show us the places that are not yet subdued unto You. Teach us how to surrender to You.