SURRENDER!
The hero locks his eyes and slowly strolls towards his opponent. Absent of fear and a total sense of confidence brimming from inside he speaks the ever cliche but powerful moniker of any great warrior, "No retreat, no SURRENDER."
Isn't that how it is? Not only for hero's or even just men for that fact, but for us all. Don't we take that stance of "I will never quit! I will never give up! I will never SURRENDER." Even the word itself has deep seeded meaning in our language.
Surrender (Verb) - To cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority.
When we hear this word we immediately get defensive and put up our guard as if by the mere utterance of the word means we are heading toward shackels...
I truly believe we have done ourselves a disservice by portraying the word "Surrender" in such a negative context. Even in our dictionary we say that it means to stop resisting an "enemy or opponent." We have painted this picture of surrender being so bad that when we experience GOD and it is required of us to "stop resisting" the greatest authority, our knee jerk reaction is to be the HERO in certain area's of our lives and say "NO REATEAT, NO SURRENDER."
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.
As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
— Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
I pray that we will remember that God intended some things differently than we do. He is not our enemy or opponent to be resisted. His authority is beautiful and sovereign and the faster we can grasp His kind of surrender the better off we'll be.
The greatest part is that we don't have to be the HERO. Not only does He freely offer an amazing authority worthy of submission but He sent all of us the one true HERO we need in our story, and his name is Jesus Christ.
When we say surrender, humanity thinks of shackles, but when God says surrender, it's an invitation to freedom. I choose FREEDOM by surrender.