Absolute Surrender

Absolute surrender is anathema to the very fabric of man’s thinking. It wasn’t always that way; it began when Adam and Eve decided that obeying God was optional. Their act of rebellion cursed us with an inherited and unquenchable unruly disposition. 
            
​Surrender means giving something up. Absolute surrender means giving up everything. When a defeated nation concedes in total capitulation to its conqueror, it has no say in the terms it is handed—there must be complete adherence. This is why no country ever wants to be in this position. It is utter humiliation and loss of sovereignty

Meditation
1 Corinthians 9:19,22-23--Although I am a free man and not anyone’s slave, I have made myself a slave to everyone, in order to win more people . . . To the weak I became weak, in order to win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means save some.  Now I do all this because of the gospel, so I may become a partner in its benefits.
 
When the Apostle Paul shared the above words with the Corinthian followers of Jesus, he was sharing the language of absolute surrender—not to people but to God. Many years earlier, in the town of Damascus, he decided to give his life to the Savior he had formally despised and wholly rejected. Jesus temporarily took his eyesight; Paul permanently gave his heart. He was transformed from Saul to Paul, from persecutor to persecuted, from strong to weak, from popular to reviled, from bound by the law to redeemed by the Messiah. And because of his humble capitulation, his impact upon the world is incalculable.
           
God never asks for our surrender—that would be capricious. He knows that our recognition that He is the Savior still leaves us highly proficient in pleasing our flesh and rejecting His Father’s will. Mere surrender is like expecting fruit from seed planted on hard or thorn-infested ground. God asks for absolute surrender. When we give up all our rights before God, we consciously proclaim that Jesus is Lord. We belong to Him. We love Him. We obey Him. That is why the hymn says, “I surrender all, all to Him I freely offer . . .” 
            
If we want to experience unending joy and possess an abundant life, we must be absolutely surrendered to Jesus Christ. Erwin McManus recognized this when he wrote in Chasing Daylight, “The moment in which we have the most to gain is also the moment we have the most to surrender.” Incidentally, we are hardly capable of surrendering completely. We make the declaration with the understanding that “God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you.”[1]  That’s why serving Him is awesome. He makes a way where there is no way. We are slaves to everyone for the sake of the gospel. Counterintuitive? Genuinely effective.
 
Inspiration
“The condition for obtaining God’s full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.”—Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender

©2026 Daniel York  ARR.  Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  To receive these devotionals, go to www.firstcause.org and click the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed, subject to the inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10—"The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.”  (Holman CSB)

[1] Andrew Murray in Absolute Surrender
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