Surrender and Submit

Catchy title, right?

A dear friend and I were both recently inspired to reconsider our definitions of submission and surrender, and to search the scriptures for perspective.

What we found was shocking- the scripture has much less mention of surrender than I expected.

But what about all our powerful, modern worship music about surrender?? What did we miss?

Let's think about our cultural connotations for "surrender" for a moment. There are undertones of loss, giving up, defeat.

Google defined "surrender" as such:

Surrender:
to cease resistance to an enemy or opponent, and submit to their authority

And what about submission? (Don't freak out, hang with me a minute!)
I think we've missed something here. Nothing the Lord asks of us should inspire us to climb the walls... He is GOOD!

Google helped me with "submit" as well:

Submit:
1) to accept or yield to a superior force or to the authority or will of another
2)to present to a person for consideration or judgement

How have we culturally accepted surrender, and not submission? Is it the judgement piece we're afraid of? Maybe we've made such relational messes with each other that we now see the Lord through broken lenses?

When we dug into the Word, we found that while surrender was scarce, submit was prevalent. We have to embrace them both, look for the Lord's heart in it, and dive in- trusting His goodness.

Let's try again.

Surrender: to cease resistance to an enemy or opponent, and submit to their authority.

That sounds like the day of my salvation! Now I'm on HIS side! That's easy to swallow- I WANT to be on His side!

Now,  submit: to accept or yield to a superior force or to the authority or will of another; to present to a person for consideration or judgement. Eek! (Ghasp! She said JUDGEMENT!)

It's pretty widely accepted that God is bigger than we are, right? I see no sense in arguing that we can even pretend to contend with His magnitude. The world over, in every culture, seeks a "higher power" ("superior force"). It's built into us to sense that He's out there, and He's BIG.

So why does the hair stand up on our necks when I type the words "to present to a person for consideration or judgement"?

8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ² because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you^[a] free from the law of sin and death.
(from Romans 8- go read the chapter! The book! All the books!)

If we know He is real, we believe Jesus is Savior, we have fallen on our faces before Him, why is submission scary?

In human relationships, I think we fear abuse. We're afraid we will be run over, taken advantage of, considered less-than. But clearly the Father thought us valuable enough to send HIS OWN SON to be tortured and killed so He could draw us in close.

After falling on our faces, we must lift our eyes. We must look Him as full in the face as our human bodies can handle, and see that He is GOOD! He is great, and terrifying, and GOOD. We must sing "I surrender All", AND "You are good, good, Ohhhh". (Public Domain Hymn, and the McMillans' "King of my heart").

Resting in His goodness, His love casts out fear. My experience with Him has been that each thing I submit to Him, each part of myself I hand over, He repairs. He shakes off the dust, He restores the broken, He crafts beauty and leaves traces of Himself. He scoops up my messes and teaches me deeply and with care. Submission to Him doesn't leave me smashed, stepped on, passed over. He always cares for my heart, and I am always better and more whole.

If you're still on your face at the cross, stay there. But don't forget to lift your eyes and drink in His goodness.