Not a good thing.
Surrender, after all, was the fate suffered by Napoleon; Confederate General Robert E. Lee; by German, Japanese and Italian generals in World War II.
I learned that surrender = defeat.
Then there was the mind-boggling truth of God's definition of "surrender." His plan for mankind: victory through surrender!
To those of us who have struggled with the ball and chains of dependence on self, it is actually freedom that we celebrate in a life surrendered to Christ.
"Torchbearer" Major W. Ian Thomas wrote famously of Christian's "threefold relationship" with God: love for Him, dependence on Him, and obedience to Him.
Thomas observed that this relationship, understandable only to those who have accepted the gift of faith, "allows God to be God in action within a human being."
We are given opportunity yet again to model Jesus.
"The true sinlessness of Jesus was His constant reliance on the Father, never falling back on Himself," wrote Thomas. "If you and I are to be functional, this same relationship that existed between Jesus Christ and His Father in heaven must also be the relationship between ourselves and the Lord Jesus."
The hole in our heart that we are born with in this fallen world is filled when we die to the flesh and are born again in the Spirit.
"Your new birth puts God into action in you," notes Thomas. "It lets all of God loose, clothed with the redeemed humanity of your own flesh and blood as a forgiven sinner, so that at last you become a normal human being just as Jesus was."
Thank you, Lord, for the invitation to walk with you in this life, seeking by the power of the Holy Spirit to discern Your will and to be used as Your instruments.
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