We don’t like this word “surrender.”

Surrender mans raising the white flag.
Surrender means giving up, forfeiting the game, saying, “I’ve lost. You’ve won.”

Surrender sounds too much like that other word we hate “submission.” We don’t like either of those words. But it’s the only pathway to peace. “I surrender to Your control, God.”

Every morning you get up you make a decision, whose going to run your life? You or God?
Whose agenda are you going to follow today? Yours or God’s?
Whose going to be calling the shots? You or God?

Sometimes you and I think we know better. And sometimes you say, “I know there’s some verses in the Bible but I want to ignore those because they don’t fit my agenda. I know what God says here but I’m just going to pretend that verse just isn’t in the Bible. I’m going to ignore it and do what I want to do. I’m going to make up my own rules.”

When we do this we always use the same phrase “But God wants me to be happy.”

Anytime we say that – “But God wants me to be happy” – it means that they are going to be justifying, rationalizing in our mind what God says not to do. Rationalize means I tell with my head what my heart says is wrong, what I know in my heart is wrong.

“But God wants me to be happy!”

You’re not going to be happy unless you do what God wants you to do.

Surrender.