THE SWEET SERENITY OF SURRENDER

 Unconditional surrender of our will to the will of God is true Christianity.  The Moslems pretend such surrender and call their man-made religion Islam, which translates, “Surrender.”  Yet they have anti-conversion laws and the concept of jihad - holy war against infidels (non-Moslems), and force sharia (Islamic law) upon all who live in areas under their political and military control.  (Hence the mess in Darfur, for example.)  Only Christianity, with no forced national group identity but rather only personal faith by individuals, is truly capable of producing real surrender to God’s perfect will… from the heart.

Surrender is synonymous with peace.  And peace in the New Testament is primarily about peace with God through the forgiveness of our sins.  Man is pictured as a rebel in need of pardon for acts of defiance against the King of the universe.  Thus God takes the initiative to make such pardon available through sending Christ as a propitiation.  Note how Romans 5:8 and 5:10 use the words “sinners” and “enemies” interchangeably.  All men are sinners and all sinners are rebels (enemies) against God, having been sucked into the same rebellion that Satan spawned in heaven with the fallen angels.  God thus must reconcile us back to him, just as a rebellious son must be brought back to dad. Thus apostles and evangelists are likened to God’s ambassadors of goodwill attempting to establish a good rapport with alienated man. (II Cor.5:18) Paul calls these alienated sinners, “children of wrath”, and talks about God’s rich mercy and great love to make us alive with Christ in the heavenly places while still in that rebellious state, by grace. (Eph.2:1-8)

Thus we see that man in his natural state is no pure innocent, worthy of much praise.  Rather, he has fallen into a state of disgrace without grace.  Without redemption, fallen man is a creature fit only for the dark-as-coal pits of hell. Only in Christ can this be changed, and man restored to his true potential as a son of God created in His image.  Peace means that the hostilities have ceased between the creature and his Creator, the man has now returned to fellowship with his Maker.  Sin ruined this fellowship due to its dark soul-sucking, deathly, separating quality.  Only the blood of the perfect man, the divine Son of God, could atone for sin, smash its corrupting power, and wipe out all of its consequences.

Peace, true lasting and permanent peace (as scripturally defined), the peace that surpasses all human comprehension, (Phil. 4:7), cannot be  created or sustained by normal human power.  So watch out for the simulations and counterfeits!!  Only the Holy Spirit can produce the spiritual serenity that the Buddhists, New Age mystics, Eckantar advocates and transcendental meditater’s claim to attain.  That is because peace with God can only be attained by His True Way of Enlightenment.  As Jesus clearly said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no one come to the Father but through Me.”  (Jn.14:7)  This narrow way can only be entered into by humble, repentant believer at the waters of immersion into Christ.(Gal.3:26)  Outside of Christ there is no serenity. Only fake peace, a Satanic placebo-like alternative for those looking for self-gratification and self-justification by self-made religion.  Real peace that the Holy Spirit brings is based on faith which is built on solid, verifiable, unchangeable historic facts of the Bible… not on hyped-up feelings, glowing personal testimonials or any other such nonsense.

Yet serenity seemingly eludes many professing followers of Christ who have been immersed and weekly observe the Lord’s Supper as active New Covenant keepers. Life seems to be “too much” for them.  Some even rely on prescription and non-prescription drugs and other such “aids” to cope.  They look like little boy’s homemade sailboats on the family pond, being pushed all over its surface by every breeze that blows.  Constant effort is made to be peaceful, trusting Christians, with only limited success.  This is not as it ought to be!  God has called us to peace.

Surrender to God is the missing ingredient in man’s pursuit of serenity.  Surrender is the placing of all issues, challenges, problems, obstacles and difficulties and storms of life, into the Master’s keeping.  It is the lying down of our will for His, as Christ so powerfully demonstrated at Gethsemane before being crucified.  It means relinquishment of any expectations except that God’s will must be, and will be, done. For most modern Americans, who have made the personal pursuit of wealth and sensuality – now defined as “the pursuit of happiness”  - the fear of losing our personal freedoms to do as we like and live much more comfortable lives than most people on this planet, hinders full surrender to Christ.  The “golden years” are defined as the years in which we must enjoy our hard earned savings and comfortably glide into our graves without any undue pain or troubles.  Thus health care is a HUGE social and political issue.  Being in pain or uncomfortable for even a day is not considered an option.  Dying “prematurely” is considered disastrous to timid, soft men who want to hang on to there life, even at the expense of killing thousands of unborn premature babies in the attempt to find cures to their diseases.  (Hence they push continuing research on living stem cells.)  This “end justifies the means” mentality shows their wimpy fear of death and disease.  Win at all costs means others must die so that I can live!  (Whether they want to or not:  Stem cells have no voice to indicate whether they’d like to go on replicating into the human life that they were designed by God to be.)

[ Ironically, due to Americans and Western Europeans focus on personal freedoms for happiness, above community and national responsibilities they’ll eventually lose both personal and political freedom if history is any precedent.  See Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago (Vol.1, 1974) and Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live, chapter 11.)

Discipleship equals surrender to a higher purpose than self!  It means the adoption of God’s purpose and plan for our lives, and the relinquishment of our own dreams.  It means voluntarily joining an army of dedicated cadres of a spiritual revolution, bent on living differently than those around us, by adopting Kingdom values above the prevailing cultural norms in which we were born and bred in the flesh. 

Surrender means that you lose your merely personal identity by joining a group, a team of people all committed to the same thing – the fulfillment of God’s plan for His glory.  Such surrender then means sacrifice in every area of our life so that we can mesh with others happily.  Cults and clubs cannot offer this true community life of incorporation, because only the Holy Spirit of God can make it work without oppression or corruption.  Only the Bible is powerful and pure enough to create such community that produces true serenity.

Looking for personal serenity by a merely personal quest will never succeed.  It is like looking for light in a dark cave, miles under the earth.  We were created to be in fellowship with each other, not as lone rangers or isolationist islands.  As Jay Wilson has aptly often said, “Christ came to save us from our isolationism.”  The church is God’s perfect means to save us from the isolationism that breeds anxiety due to being out of synch with God’s created social order.  Just look at a baby or child, to see how man was not created to be an autonomous unit operating all by himself.

Despite this obvious truth, modern man wants to surround himself with objects of convenience – including people.  These can be turned off and on by the push of a button- preferably by remote control while seated in a comfortable chair.  Long term entangled relationships are too messy, limiting the virtual autonomy of the selfish man.  Everything must be quick and easier to use and dispose.  Marriages are included, as are kids, with convenient disposable spouses and children.  Thus divorces, like bankruptcies, (another result of the lack of accountability), abound these days.

Serenity opposes “frenetic-ism “  Being frenetic means never really stopping to smell the roses or give thanks for God’s daily “miracles” of sunsets and sunrises, newborns, ice storms, musical genius, or a field of sunflowers.  It is all active hustle and bustle, with little reflection.  Obsessed with avoiding boredom as the deadliest condition, frenetic people can “get no satisfaction”, as sung by Rolling Stones.  Life seems to play a cosmic joke of keeping personal happiness just out of reach as favorite playgrounds and activities keep quickly loose there allure. Tomorrow, tomorrow… their personal fulfillment, their constant focus, is ….only a day away.  No wonder extreme sports and other ridiculous activities of playboy Americans have arisen.  Even war has become a techno-wonder virtual event for many who from long-distance, bomb, shoot and engage the enemy from impersonal machines and computer monitors far from the actual blood and guts of the dying.

Jesus said that all who were weak and heavy laden could find rest in Him.  This rest is serenity.  It is a relaxation from the constant pressure to please both man and God by an impossible, perfectionist standard of men.  Whether the Pharisee’s code of conduct or modern man’s trends and styles, people need freed from the false expectations of themselves or others.  They especially need released from the real burden of guilt that their own sin has created.  They need God’s own peace granted to them unconditionally by faith in the finished work of Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Resting in faith creates an island of stability and peace in a boiling sea of human misery and change.

Many have concluded this from carefully examining the evidence, nay, the actual proof, of scriptures.  But still serenity eludes them, as previously stated.  This is due to their lack of mutual surrender to others in the same state of salvation.  In Ephesians 5, Paul told the saints to mutually subject themselves to one another.  Many “one another” verses show the need for giving up self for the greater good.  Just examine Romans 14:1- 15:4; I Cor. 12 -14 and so forth to see the enormous importance of this communal life in Christ.

The trick of it is that it seems contradictory, to die to live, to sacrifice to be happy.  That is because Christian life is a paradoxical paradigm.  A paradox means that two things just don’t seem to add up, but nevertheless, they still do.  God is ironic to the core.  Thus the “foolishness of God” is greater by far then the wisdom of man. (I Cor.1:18)   God shames the “wise” and babes declare the wonderful wisdom of God.  (Think of baby Jesus, naked, weak, helpless, dependent… and the Savior of mankind.)  Surrender seems like loosing, and yet is still the only route to victory.  Death precedes life.  Dying in immersion, we only then are raised up to walk in newness of life. (Rom.6:3-4)   Only he who looses his life for Christ’s sake will find it.

Face your fears!  What are they: Loneliness?  Boredom?  Hard work? Abandonment?  Old age?  Disease – like cancer?  Poverty?  Ridicule and ostracism?  Torture – and pain in general?  Bad weather?  Hunger?  Then honestly face them, and realize that God’s plan for us is to be joined together in a worldwide team of saints, an international house of prayers and praise This is actually His perfect remedy for a life characterized by selfishness and fears. Abandonment of self, like Christ at Gethsemane, is no cakewalk, but will result in an infusion of power from above as God’s pure, enlivening celestial and real love pours into your heart by sweet surrender to His will.  This is the abundant life of abandonment to God and fellow man that many talk about but few actually realize by experience.

I am not suggesting a turning off of your God-given intellect.  Or blindly trusting any man as your god.  But I am advocating and urging you to give up, without any reservations, your will to God’s will, and particularly, to His Son Jesus Christ.  This is an inner attitude of the heart, which will result in making His priorities your own, and loving the lost like He did and does.   When this is done for the right reason, because you trust the Lord, due to the preponderance of proof of His infinite power and good will towards you, then you will begin having the serenity you seek, and really need, so desperately.  Christianity is about surrender, and the Spirit is a Spirit of the Dove of God.  He is able to comfort and help you to have inner peace that is totally adequate to meet whatever condition in which you might find yourself.

A final note:  Who is mentoring and discipling you?  Who are you accountable unto as a local body of believers in a church organized and led by the Word of God and evidencing clear signs of being a place where the Spirit is leading?  Find a place and firmly plant yourself there as an integral, obedient and fruitful member.  Remember, only you can put yourself there and make yourself available, and only you can take yourself out.  I personally would travel anywhere and pay anything to be part of such a body.  If none exist, then perhaps God will use you to create one through your prayers of faith.  Cornelius, Lydia and others in the New Testament were preparing the fields of their lives for God’s greatest blessing to man, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The 120 were preparing by prayer for the outpouring of this Holy Spirit and the ennauragation of the church in their lives.  Perhaps you must do the same.  Seek and find Christ’s kingdom, both in your heart and in you neighborhood or somewhere on this earth.  Surrender without mutual teamwork is a mere illusion.  Don’t be deceived. It is only in the church that you will ever be conformed to the image of His son, as you serve, forgive, encourage and live with others of like faith.  The church is the kingdom, and the King is in the church.  Find the King – Jesus Christ our Lord – and be part of His eternal kingdom in a real, daily walk with others to seek and save the lost, the rescue team of Jesus. 

Peace!