SURRENDER: Learning to Cry Uncle

“If man is not made for God, why is he only happy in God? If man is made for God, why is he so opposed to God?” –Blasie Pascal

WHY DO WE STRUGGLE?

1) Some of us have wrestled with God for days, weeks, months, years, some our entire lives! The most sincere prayer we can pray is, “…not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42)

The addiction to running our own lives. We tend to be involved in wars over territory or we treat God like a used car salesman and try to set up for a conditional surrender.

A faulty view of God’s care, provision, and providence over our lives. The real questions that go through our mind are “Does God really know what is best? ” Does God really care? Does He know what he is doing? Probably the best example of this was with the Jews and God’s provision of manna in the wilderness (See Numbers 11:1-9).

Provision timing, people, conflict, difficulties, circumstances, expectations, frustrations, etc. We wouldn’t directly complain that its God’s fault, but when all is said and done that is exactly what we are complaining about. Why are you doing this to me? What are we really saying when we complain? I could’ve done better; you aren’t acting fairly towards me. I will do something about this: I will rebel and show you, I’ll leave the church, I’ll leave my spouse, quit my job, gripe, complain, pout, escape, focus my prayer energies on it, etc.

We cannot worship someone we don’t trust. Faith isn’t tested by how often God answers my prayers with a yes but rather my willingness to keep serving and thanking him, even when I don’t have a clue as to what he is doing. We need to become convinced that God is overseeing and caring for our lives. When I insist upon control, my anxiety level rises, frustration reaches a boiling point, and discontentment sets in. Christianity without surrender says, “If God blesses me, I’ll be obedient. If times get rough, I’ll try something else.”

A comparison to others in what God is doing with them. What about so and so? One of the greatest difficulties of surrender is that God doesn’t appear to treat His children equally. Remember Peter? (See John 21:18-24) For Peter the real issue was that John was getting a better shake than Peter (forgetting of course, what he’d done — v. 24).

2) In order to receive the blessings of God, God will wrestle us to the point of surrender (Genesis 32:25-29). Finally the angel used the overpowering might of God to touch the socket of Jacob’s hip. Jacob’s “victory” was not one of conquest but of survival. He walked away from the duel, but he walked with a limp for the rest of his life.

The discussion with the angel about names is significant. The angel demanded the name of Jacob. The demand for the name was similar to the custom we have today of indicating surrender by saying “uncle.” For the combatant to yield his name meant that he was acknowledging the superiority of the other party. The yielding of the name was an act of submission. When Jacob surrendered his name he surrendered his soul. He relinquished authority over his own life. With the surrender came a new name, a new identity — Israel, “God fights, God rules, God commands, or God prevails.” From the supplanter, fighting with God all of his life, now God is fighting for him.

In defeat Jacob was still hoping for a draw, a tie in the contest that would leave his pride intact. Even a split decision would help. He said to the angel, “Please tell me your name.” Note the difference in the name exchange issue. The angel demanded Jacob’s name and Jacob surrendered it. Jacob politely requested the angel’s name and did not get it. This was the final act of divine conquest.

There are no draws with God, no split decisions. When we wrestle with the Almighty, we lose. He is the undefeated champion of the universe. All we can do is cry “uncle”. There will be a time in all of our Christian journeys, when like Jacob, we will wrestle with God all night long…but there must eventually come a dawn when we say, “Okay God, You win. You’ve broken me and I’m yours. No more fighting. No more complaining. Lead me where your will. Not my will but thine be done.”

Surrender is not a once in a lifetime activity; it is the continual worship of a growing Christian. This means I must be willing to part with anything on a regular basis, even good things that God has given me.

“There is not a single gift, noble as it may be, which, after having been a means of advancement, does not generally become, later on, a trap and an obstacle, by the return of self which soils the soul. For this reason God takes away what he has given. But he does not take it away to deprive us of it forever. He takes it away so that he can better give it, so that he can give it back without the impurity of this evil sense of ownership, which we mingle with it without noticing it in ourselves. The loss of the gift takes away our ownership…. Then the gift is no longer the gift of God. It is God himself in the soul. It is no more a gift of God, because we consider it no longer as something apart from him, and something which the soul can possess.” –Fenelon

How many Christians have wondered why a precious relationship has seemed to go sour, a powerful ministry appears be drying up, or a healthy business seems to be disintegrating? Could it be that we have taken what is good and begun worshiping the created rather than the Creator? God blesses us, and we become so enamored with the blessing that we lose sight of the One whom blesses.

The most important thing in your life is not where you live, what you are doing, or what you are going through. The most important thing in your life is no matter what, I am with Him.

“Now if we are children, then we are heirs– heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17).

What a different view of our lives from God’s perspective! I’m living my life with Christ.

The key to surrender: Acceptance. Sometimes we surrender to God quickly and quietly, sometimes with heated anger and lots of noise. How we get there may differ but that we get there may not. Surrender for some may mean keeping our eyes on God when we have enough money to last a lifetime. For others, it may mean keeping our eyes on God if we only are eating Top Romin for five days in a row. Surrender means adopting the right inner attitude to every outward circumstance.

3. There is precious fruit of surrender: Peace, faith, and happiness with God (See Genesis 32:26-32). We see him not fighting but clinging in total dependence to God. God who had been a “take Him or leave Him, I can do most without Him,” sort of person to Jacob, suddenly becomes indispensable to Jacob.

All of his life Jacob had fought men and won, only in reality to lose. Now Jacob fights God and loses, only to really win dependence that is not weakness, but spiritual power. Not the power to control people or circumstances.

The power to be changed into Christ likeness.
“For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).

“God’s agenda and love for us holds a much bigger concern than our immediate comforts.” –Gary Thomas

The power to live with peace when the whole world is falling apart.Things aren’t going the way we want to or expected, because we know that God is in control. Power comes when I cling to God instead of wrestling with Him. Jacob calls the place “Peniel” because he had survived wrestling with God. He had reached the height of arrogance and pride and realized he had been spared through god’s grace and mercy. The rest of his life he will, walk with a limp to remind him of his weakness.

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls.’ But you said, ‘We will not walk in it’” (Jeremiah 6:16).

“Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me’” (Luke 9:23).

CLOSING THOUGHT
Is God wrestling with you? Are you war or peace, no or yes, resist or give in, fight or say uncle, the choice is ours. God offers us peace on his unconditional terms.

Are you living as if you are still engaged in a state of war with God? God keeps saying, “the war is over”, lay down your arms. God, I want to be on your side. Wherever God is, I want to be. If God is in riches or poverty, sickness and health, at home or far away, I want to be there! Whatever God is doing, that’s what I want to be doing. Nothing else matters. I suspect that a thousand years from now I’ll have a pretty good understanding of why my life has gone the way it has; for now, I must be content to trust that God knows what He is doing. God will not lay down His arms. He has declared war upon all that stand in rebellion. The vanquished receive eternal life; the obstinate are condemned by their own foolishness. But there will be no peace in your life until we surrender.

“Surrender to God is the essence – and the greatest blessing of the Christian life.” –Gary Thomas

Remember, our example is Jesus, who prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Not My will, but Thine be done.” This is the model of surrender. May we be satisfied with nothing less!

It all boils down to the fact that while it may be unpleasant at times and hard to do, we must surrender everything to Him. Until we give ourselves to Him completely, holding nothing back, we cannot grow in our relationship with Him. We will grow stagnant and whither on the vine. I did that and believe me, it is much easier to surrender than to fight. It is my prayer that all of us will give totally, and without reservation, our all to the Lord. God Bless and keep you.