Surrender: A Necessity for Growth

Depth in the spiritual life is measured by the extent of our surrender. What is not surrendered remains untouched. For this reason, an important question we should ask ourselves regularly is: “What in my life have I not surrendered to God?” The possibilities are endless- our health, career, family, time, talents, and so much more.

We must also remember that surrender is not always permanent. Often, and sometimes without realizing it, we quietly reclaim the very things we once entrusted to God. Why do we do this? Because a full and complete surrender, to anyone or anything, even God, terrifies most of us. In our fear, we grasp at life, people, and circumstances, hoping they will reveal our identity and provide us with a sense of security or consolation in this world.

Yet, despite how difficult and frightening surrender can feel, there is an essential truth we must remember: nothing, not even our own lives, truly belongs to us. Everything is a gift. Surrender, then, is the act of returning the gift, whether it be our health, career, family, time, or talents back to God, the giver of all gifts.

There is, however, another important caveat. For surrender to be complete, it must be offered without control or demand that the outcome look or feel a certain way. Why is this important? Because the moment we attempt to manage or dictate how what we have given to God should unfold, we reveal that we have not truly surrendered at all.

This is, for most of us, nearly impossible. We instinctively tell God what to do, when to do it, and even how to do it. We form images in our minds of what answered prayers should look like and how our gifts ought to be used. At times, these images may align with God’s own designs; often, however, they do not.

How, then, can we grow in our spiritual lives by surrendering more deeply, and more permanently, to God? Deep and lasting surrender to God does not arise primarily from effort, but from conviction: conviction in the goodness, love, and generosity of God. As Jesus reminds us, the God who “clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven,” will “much more clothe you, O you of little faith” (Matthew 6:30).

The more deeply we come to know God’s love for us, not as an idea, a possibility, or simply a pious thought, but as life itself, the greater our capacity for surrender becomes. For when we truly know ourselves to be loved so intimately by God, fear begins to fade, trust becomes our foundation, and surrender, whatever it may involve and whoever it may concern, becomes the safest and surest thing we can do.