What does it mean to be fully surrendered?

I remember as a child in church, always sing the song “I Surrender All”. It was one of three songs that was sung at the end of the sermon and was sung as an altar call song. Powerful song, powerful message, but it also had a way of making you feel guilty, like you were a sinner, so almost every time I would be compelled to go to the altar and repent, thus getting saved over and over again. Religion has a way of making us feel guilty and full of shame.

Recently, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be fully surrendered. When we say “I surrender all” I believe it has just become another cliché term that we Christians tend to use all the time, not really ever having a revelation of what it fully means.

I’ll have to be honest and say that I have always had to notion that being fully surrendered to God meant that He controlled my life, my decisions, my thoughts etc. and the thing to do was respond like a robot…haha. Another thought was being fully surrendered meant I didn’t make the decision, but He would make it for me. Basically I was relinquishing control of my life over to Him and He would tell me who, what, where, when and why. I no longer had a say in how my life turned out in the long run.

After years of walking through this as a child and growing up in the religious church, I’ve realized that obviously, this is not really what surrender is. So, recently I’ve had this question running through my thoughts as to what true surrender looks like.

I believe true surrender is a heart positioned and postured in a place that God has the greatest influence over my thoughts, my actions, my behaviors, and my decisions. Thus influencing what road I walk down every day or what job I have, what friends I have etc. If He is truly Lord over my life then He will have the greatest influence over my life. His influence does not look like me being controlled or manipulated by Him, but I will be given the greatest amount of grace that will overshadow me to the point that my decisions will be influenced by His voice and His heart for my life.

What does God desire to do in me? He will do anything I let Him in to do! Surrender is a decision of the heart to allow God the freedom to influence and impact my life so that it is a part of the greater Kingdom that will change the world. How much room am I going to give Him? He knows my life better than I do. He knows my thoughts before I even think them. He knows the choices I’m going to make before I make them. So, how much am I going to let Him in?

We can have such tunnel vision and only see the small world we are in and not the bigger world that is all around us. But with a heart fully surrendered we will see the world as He sees and He will show us how to become more like Him and change the world.