Surrender

On a recent Sunday at my church, we sang a series of songs containing the following lyrics:

"I surrender it all for the love of my King."

"I'm surrendering my all;
I surrender to the King"

"All of my ambitions, hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands."

It started to sound kind of sad to me, actually, all the talk about not being able to have autonomy in what you did. I mean, what if I want to climb a mountain and God wants me in a ship on the ocean? I would have to go my whole life knowing I would never get to climb that mountain. Wouldn't that be a kind of personal tragedy? There are definitely things I've wanted to do in my life that haven't happened. Do I have to wipe those things clean, clear them out of my mind, surrender them to Jesus like I was giving up my pistol to the arresting officer?

Of course not.

I realized that that's not what those lines mean at all. When we give "our plans" to God, God will either reveal to us how silly they are, or (more likely) make them come to pass... and when He makes them come to pass, they happen at the best possible time and in the best possible way.

Delight yourself in the Lord,
and he will give you the desires of your heart. -Psalm 37:4

God creates us specifically for certain things. If I could create something out of nothing and I needed to cut something, I would probably create a knife or scissors. If the thing I created was going to have consciousness, I would create it so that it was the happiest when it was cutting something that I needed cut. God's not me, of course, but I think God creates us predisposed to the task He has in mind for us. If it's a desire you have deep inside of you, there's a better than average chance that it has something to do with the call of God for your life.

I think when we surrender our plans to God, we don't surrender in the sense of giving them up. We surrender in the sense that we don't force them to happen in our own timing. We surrender to God's wise timing, and we know that when He makes it happen, He'll make it happen right!

Commit your work to the Lord,
and your plans will be established. -Proverbs 16:3