Five Things You Can Do that will Help You Surrender to God’s Will

One of the hardest sentences in my life has been…

“Lord, not my will but Yours be done.”

Learning to let go and let God have His way in our lives is the best thing we can do for ourselves. If we believe, as it says in Colossians 1:17, that God “is before all things, and in Him all things hold together,” then we can trust and know that He got everything under control.

Surrender is a word that used to terrify me.

I’m guessing I’m not alone.

It’s not easy to give up and give in to the Sovereign God of the Universe because doing so requires…

Trusting that God is who He says He is. Believing He is able to do what He says He will do. Living in peace knowing His love is greater than any circumstances.

I’ll admit it’s easier to surrender to God’s will when life is easy and He’s working in ways that please me. It’s harder when I can’t understand my current situation and the road ahead looks hard.

Maybe like me, you want to do better and face each day in obedience without fighting to get your own way.

If so, I believe this will help you like it’s helping me.

1. Trust God’s Love

It’s hard for me to follow someone who doesn’t want what’s best for me and since the Garden of Eden, Satan has used whatever he can to get people to doubt God’s love.

Have you ever heard a child say “you don’t love me” to a parent’s “no?” Yet the job of a loving parent isn’t to make their children happy, it’s to do what is best to help them grow and mature.

I’m learning that as my loving Heavenly Father, God is at work in my life helping me grow and mature in faith and love.

And…

God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him.This is real love—not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:9–10

That is HUGE love!

2. Let Go of Worry and Surrender in Faith

If worry was an Olympic sport, I’d have a trophy case of medals. The list of things I’ve worried about is too long for this space. I’d memorized the verse “don’t worry about tomorrow” as a child — but applying it seemed beyond my anxiety overwhelm.

But I’m not doing tomorrow right now. I living today! It took several major crises before I finally learned that I just needed God to help me through this moment and trust Him to give me what I need in the next. That’s living through faith…

Believing God will meet each need one moment at a time!

Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And if worry can’t accomplish a little thing like that, what’s the use of worrying over bigger things? Luke 12:25–26

3. Let Go of the Past and Surrender to God’s Grace
Dwelling on the past is as much of a problem as worrying about the future.

In Christ Jesus, God has completely forgiven the past. I’m learning to trust Him and lean into His grace and mercy.

Part of surrendering means going to God in prayer asking Him to forgive my past and give me all I need to forgive those who hurt me. When you and I focus on regret and revenge we cannot surrender. Those two things will always rob us of God’s peace and joy.

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18–19

4. Let Go of Impatience and Surrender to God’s Timing

We’re not good at waiting… I have a schedule to follow. You too?!
But the truth is, there is no peace when I’m tapping my foot and staring at my watch.

So, I’m giving my impatience to God, asking Him to help me trust His timing and while I wait, I’m also asking Him to give me His peace and strength.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

5. Let Go of Disobedience and Surrender to God’s Commands

We are too often a creature of habits and not all of them are good. It’s easy to make light of my sins, after all they’re not THAT bad. But sins are a big deal. They rob us of peace, cause us unpleasant consequences, and fail to glorify God.

I’m asking God to help me believe His ways are best and give me a heart for obedience … not to earn His favor but to glorify Him and testify to His love.

Lord, we show our trust in You by obeying Your laws;  our heart’s desire is to glorify Your name.Isaiah 26:8

I still have so much to learn to completely surrender to God’s will.
I like to have control over what happens in my life. I want what I want and I want it now. But experience has taught me that fighting God’s plans will never offer me lasting happiness or peace. It has never happened in the past and I doubt it will in the future.

I believe God wants to help us trust His perfect love and surrender to His will.

Remember the things I have done in the past. For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Isaiah 64:9

So… I will surrender my will to God today. 

Not on my own.

But with His help.

I can do all things through Christ because He gives me strength. Philippians 4:13

Stop Striving & Start Abiding

Didn’t Jesus come so that we could stop striving? Psalm 46:8 says, “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth”. The first step in learning to let go of control is to stop striving. We don’t have to strive to make our life turn out a certain way; we just have to abide in Him (John 15).

Confess and Surrender Your Need for Control

If you’re like me and you crave control, the remedy for change is prayer. Go to God and be honest — tell Him how you feel. Say, “God I confess I like being in control. It makes me feel safe and secure. It makes me feel like I have a purpose. But I know that being a control freak isn’t going to get me anywhere. Help me surrender control to you each and every day. Help me trust in you deeply, so that I will not fear surrendering that control. Help me remember that you hold it all.”

Be Still and Know

In Exodus 14, we see the best Egyptian fighters try to capture the Israelites (this is the scene before the parting of the Red Sea). Instead of trying to control every little detail of their escape plan, in verses 13-14 Moses tells the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm … the LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still”. And you know what God did? He rescued them! He was in control the whole time, even when the enemy was on its way, ready to take the Israelites down. He can do the same for us when we trust and rest in Him.

Trust
Trusting in God is a lifelong process. Like many aspects of the Christian faith, it’s a choice that we make every day. We have to learn to let go of trying to figure out the “whys” of life and trust that God understands more than we ever could.

Seek God
God holds the world in His hands — but we’ll never fully grasp the power and extent of those hands if we’re not tuned in to and focused on Him. When we surrender control, wait and trust in God’s plan, we can know that he will be faithful to lead us where He wants us to go.

Jeremiah 29:13 says “You will find Me when you search for Me with all your heart”. Seek God and he will direct your steps.