Counting All as Loss by Naomi Valine What does the word “surrender” bring to your mind? Do you picture handcuffs, courtrooms, and cell doors? Or possibly you think of flowing streams, babbling brooks, sun, and butterflies? Whatever word picture comes to your mind, I think that surrender simply means living out Philippians 3:8-11 in your life. “More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of many things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Surrender is played out when you come to a point in your life when nothing else matters except pleasing the Lord. It is when you are willing to give up all that you are, all that you have, and all that concerns you simply to be in the presence of the Almighty God all the days of your life. To “count all things to be loss”, as Paul says, “in order that I may gain Christ”, is a phenomenon that must be played out in us. But why? Why would we want to be completely surrendered to God, especially when its costs us so much? We must give up all that is dear to us, and for what? Allow me to propose an answer to these questions. God cannot truly use you unless you are completely surrendered to Him. I know that this statement is shocking to you at first, but if you ponder it awhile, I think you’ll find it to be true. If you are keeping an area of your life back from the Lord, you will never have total peace. Think about it. If you have not surrendered, say, maybe the way you dress or the books you read, or your letter-writing time to the Lord for His controlling, that will entangle you. You cannot truly be a “vessel fit for the Master”, purified and holy, with this one area jutting up at you all the time saying “You know, your flesh is still in control over me.” God must have all of you in order to use you for His kingdom. Imagine yourself trying to make a pie without one ingredient! The uncompleted pie just sits there until you acquire the ingredient! That’s how it is when you want God to use you when you are not totally surrendered to Him. The difference is, He can’t go and borrow the missing part from a neighbor like you could when you’re short an ingredient! You must give Him everything you have in order to be effective for Him. One more thing to remember though, is that the question is not whether the thing you need to surrender is good or not. The question is whether you still have dominion over it, or whether you’ve given that authority to God. As I’ve been thinking about this article, pondering surrender, I’ve realized more and more how vital surrender really is in the Christian walk. Every facet of our existence is dependent upon the fact that we are surrendered to God. Let me give you a scenario. Imagine a football team trying to win a game. The players all depend upon the coach to direct them throughout the game, and they say that they will follow his orders. They do this, only they refuse to follow any orders that don’t suit their fancy, don’t put them in the spotlight, or that just don’t please them. If this were to happen, nothing good would come out of the game, and the team would lose for sure. Why? Because the members of the team didn’t understand a very important concept that was vital to their winning the game. You cannot expect God to order your life and bring you blessings if you are not willing to do what He says. Just like the players of that football game needed to obey the coach’s every direction, so we too need to obey everything that God tells us to do. Every direction that God gives to us is important to His plan. If we obey only the things that we like, the plan will be foiled, and God’s perfect will won’t be accomplished. To put it in the words of one of my favorite authors, “The secret to obedience is simply trusting God. You have to decide He’s smarter than you and be willing to do what He says whether you understand it or not...No matter how insignificant God’s instructions may seem to you right now, take them seriously. What may seem of little significance now, may cause you to avoid serious consequences later.” Maybe you’ve been reading this (and all the other things on surrender in this magazine), and you know that there is something that you need to surrender to the Lord. What do you do about it? Well, I’ll tell you what not to do. Don’t go and sit up in your room for an hour “trying” to surrender. I mean, you can do that, but it won’t profit you any in surrendering. One definition of the term surrender is “to give up or abandon”. We need to remember that when we surrender-truly surrender-we are abandoning our fleshly selves. We give ourselves up to God, leaving our sinful lives at the feet of the Master, and He does the rest, giving us peace in exchange. It’s not necessary for us to spend hours trying to figure out how it will work! All we need to do is release everything to the Lord for His blessings. Acknowledge that He’s wiser than you, and turn your life and plans over to Him. I pray God’s riches blessings on you as you surrender to Him - Naomi Valine, NY YWSH Main Page