Friday Fight 234: The Surrendered Soul

Every Friday, when I wake and pray, God places something on my heart to help fight darkness beginning in our minds. Today is FF234.

Have you ever considered what it truly means to live your life as a child of God? We carry His love, talk with Him in prayer, and surrender our own identities and desires, placing His will for our lives above our own. Yet, we all go through seasons when we struggle to remain rooted. We try our best to wait on God, but often fail. At times, we are more concerned with how our position in life appears rather than being an example of someone who has surrendered to God. What perspective shift can we apply to help us stay focused during our spiritual transformation?

The Surrendered Soul:

Surrendering in general can be difficult, but surrendering to God is everything. To be His child, we must die to ourselves to live in Him. What does this mean? To truly live as God’s child, we must die to who we think we are and what we believe we are solely capable of doing. When we do this, it allows Him to bring forth something new in us. For example, there is no blossoming of a beautiful flower unless the seed first dies. A seed must die to bloom; just as there is no transformation without surrender. In John 12:24, Jesus also uses this analogy of a seed dying to bring forth fruit.

When we fully submit to the call and will of God, the heart of the Father is filled with joy. He is not focused on our brokenness, like we tend to be, but on who we are becoming through our surrender. Many hesitate to come to God, thinking they must fix themselves first, but will always meet us in the middle of our mess.

We cannot be God’s child and our own person simultaneously, which causes us to struggle. Doing so would be like loving God on Sunday and living for yourself the rest of the week. The Word of God tells us to love and pray for our enemies. It doesn’t say we have to like them, nor does it call us to tolerate them, but again, to love them. Holding our sin in one hand and God’s hand in the other is not true surrender. It is us asking Him to tolerate our behavior while we somewhat obey His commands.

The last part of this spiritual posture that needs reflection is our spiritual arrogance. God is not interested in our self-importance; He is interested in our whole heart. We cannot love God as His child and hate others. This would be like us bargaining and trying to make a deal with God. Can you imagine the dialogue: “Please Lord, let me have this one sin and I will be yours the rest of the time?” God does not negotiate while we dictate.

Let’s stop and take a moment to look at the damage sin can cause, specifically unforgiveness. When we repent, we are asking God to remove the very ties that darkness will use to manipulate and destroy us. When we refuse to forgive, it turns to bitterness, which is like having spiritual cancer. A helpful analogy is to imagine bitterness like a lint brush, to which all the other sins quickly adhere.

When we look at David and his repentance in Psalm 51:3-4, “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” He doesn’t defend his sin, he owns it. He did not attempt to excuse, minimize, or make a deal. That’s true surrender. This week, let’s focus on being the child God created, the one He renewed, and called to follow His lead. When He leads and we obey, He is truly present within us.

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In His Grace,

Pastor Shannon

River Church