8 KEYS TO LIVE A SURRENDERED LIFE!

What does living a life of surrender to Jesus look like? What does it mean when someone says that they believe in Jesus? Maybe you are struggling with understanding that, and today, I want to help you unpack that and understand what that means. Here are 8 keys that will help you live a surrendered life. So, let’s get to it.

Definition.

According to Wikipedia, surrendering to spirituality and religion means that a believer completely gives up his own will and subjects his thoughts, ideas, and deeds to the will and teachings of a higher power.

This, in simple terms, means laying your life down and accepting the fact that you cannot do it on your own, as there is someone greater than you who can and will help you. It is resolving to give up the control you think you have and giving it back to the one who is in control and has control, to begin with. It might sound like a simple thing to do, but if you are like me, you want to know ways to practically demonstrate that. So maybe you have been wondering how you can live a surrendered life. Maybe you have been feeling a tug in your life to surrender to God. Has Jesus been asking you to lay your life down for His sake?

The Importance of living a surrendered life

Living a surrendered life brings you to a place of rest. This means that worry and constant stress become a thing of the past. You see, worry comes from a place of trying to control the outcome of a particular situation. And it is when you choose to live a life of surrender, rest becomes a part of your life. If you have been in a place of worry and constant stress, today I want to encourage you to live a life of surrender. God wants to give you rest. He tells us that In His presence there is rest. It does not mean that you will not get to do your daily tasks. It simply means that you no longer obsess over what you cannot control and instead focus on what you can.

Living a surrendered life draws you closer to God. In your weakness, you get to experience His strength the most. God is attracted to your weakness. It does not mean He does not want to empower you or see you live a life of power. What I mean is that often it is when you get to the end of yourself and come to the realization that your ability comes from Him that you get to feel His power. And again, He is always close to the broken-hearted and those surrendered to Him. Abraham fully trusted God, and that was why God called him His friend. The same was said of Moses. They both surrendered every aspect of their lives to God. And their relationship with God was the fruit and evidence.

Resilience and perseverance are the fruit of surrender. When you live a surrendered life, you naturally learn to adapt to changes quickly and are able to bounce back faster. This is because surrender gives you the ability to hold things loosely and be open to new possibilities. There are times when what we

Biblical ways in which you can live a surrendered life.

Jesus wants you and me to live a life surrendered to Him. He is not asking that of us so that He can take the fun away. He just wants us to experience the abundant life He died for and freedom. The enemy lies to us that life with Jesus is boring. This is not the case, however. The boundaries Jesus gave us are for our protection. And once we realize that it is easy to surrender to Him. It is in our surrender that we get to experience the fullness of who He is.

Receive Jesus as your savior.

The first step is to believe in Jesus and give Him access to your life, heart, and soul. There is no way you can claim to live a surrendered life if you do not believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Have you given Jesus access to your heart? It is not too late to do that. Just decide and allow Him to live inside your heart. Laying your life down means giving it to Jesus. Asking Him to take the driver’s seat and have full control of your life. When you give your life to Jesus, you demonstrate you trust Him and you are ready to live a life fully committed to Him. Jesus says that believing in Him is the first step to laying your life down.

For with the heart, a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Romans 10:10 Do you have a relationship with Jesus? Do you know that He wants to have a relationship with you?

Prayer.

I know you know that prayer is communication with God. But what you might not realize is that when you are praying, you are surrendering. This is because for you to resolve to pray means that you understand that you have limitations. And through prayer, you are showing God that you trust Him and that you are giving Him full control of your situations because He has no limitations. The only way you can engage in prayer is when you know that prayer will change the situation because the one you are praying to has the power to change the situation. A prayer is an act of surrender as it humbles you and helps you give up control and instead trust Him with your situation. Every time you pray, you always know that you are exemplifying a surrendered life and giving up pride and control.

Prayer is a practical key that will help you live a surrendered life. Let’s not forget the fact that prayer also changes us. The more you pray, the more you reflect God’s character. By reflecting God’s character, you allow Him to transform you. In so doing, you learn to let go of control and surrender to Him. Today, I would like to encourage you to engage in prayer more if you want to live a surrendered life.

Worship.

Worship is another form of surrender. When you worship, you are agreeing with the fact that God is Sovereign and you are giving Him access to your life. As we worship, we posture our hearts in humility and thus, exuding a life, surrendered to Him. In moments of worship, we rarely think of ourselves, but usually, we turn our hearts and eyes to God, giving Him glory and praise. Singing praises to God, dancing to Him, and even in moments where we are meditating on His word and reading His Word, we show we surrender our lives to Him. This is because when we take time to understand His ways by engaging in His word and through worship, we portray a level of trust that comes through surrender.

Living a lifestyle of worship is a form of surrender. How else will you worship God if you are not surrendered to Him? How will you take the time to sing praises to God, if you have not allowed Him to rule over your life? Remember, you become a slave to what you allow to rule you. And whenever you are worshipping you portray exactly that.

Obeying His word.

Do you want to live a surrendered life? Obeying what God says in His word is another way you can live a surrendered life. And for you to obey His word, you have to know what it says. And the only way you can know what it says is by spending time in the word of God. Do you read His Word? Do you know what God wants you to do? Your actions have to align with what you say. Simply saying that you are surrendered to God is not enough. You need to follow His word as that is what will guide you in doing What He wants. Learn what God wants you to do and follow What He says.

Jesus tells us that we show our love for Him when we obey His commandments. The truth of the matter is that the word of God contains all the commands and laws that Jesus wants us to follow. Also, Jesus according to John 1:1 is the Word made flesh. So when we obey the word, we are obeying Jesus.

In the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God  ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made. ⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it. John 1:1-5

Trust.

How can you claim to live a surrendered life if you do not trust the leading of the Holy Spirit? Surrender requires trust and faith in the one who is guiding and directing your steps. Do you believe what God says to you and about you? Do you believe that His intentions for you are good? Can you trust His leading when He tells you to leave the familiar and into the new and uncomfortable? Would you say that you can give up what you know for what you don’t know if He tells you to?

Can you, like Abraham, leave your home country and go to a land you don’t know even without having the full picture? What about going to a desert and trusting that ravens will feed you just like Elijah did? It is easy to say we are surrendered to God when it is safe, but what about when things get uncomfortable, will we still live a surrendered life?

Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.

Discernment and sensitivity

How will you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit if you lack discernment? How sensitive are you to the voice of God? Can you tell when God is speaking and do you know His voice? Do you spend enough time with Him to know His voice? The only way you can be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit is through intimacy. And the only way intimacy is formed is through a relationship and, for a relationship to thrive, quality time is important.

So do you intentionally set time aside to spend time with God? Have you scheduled it as you do other things? We all have responsibilities, but let us not forget our first love and that is God. We can only live a surrendered life when we spend time with God. The reason spending time with God is important is aside from discernment, we learn to trust Him because we know Him.

When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham did not hesitate. Do you know why? Because of his spending time With God, he learned to trust God even when He asked him to give up something he valued and held dear. And because Abraham knew that God’s heart towards him was pure, he was willing to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. Do you know God’s character? It’s okay if you don’t. Resolve in your heart to spend time with Him and intentionally schedule it. Through your time with God, you will learn to trust Him, and thus living a surrendered life will come naturally.

Tithing and sowing.

We can live a surrendered life by surrendering our finances to God. Through tithing and sowing, you show God that finances don’t take center stage in your life. Generosity is surrender as well. So, do you know of someone you could help? Has God been asking you to help someone financially, in your obedience to what He is telling you-you are portraying a surrendered life?

God asks us to give Him the first and the best. It is when we do that, that we make Him the Lord of our life. Trusting God with your finances is usually not an easy thing to do. After all, you are giving to someone else in the name of God, This is why it takes faith to give, tithe, and sow. Let me ask you this when was the last time you tithed and sowed? Do you find it hard to give in the name of God? Allow me to challenge you to tithe and sow and trust God with your finances. Watch how He blows your mind.

The benefits of tithing

¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty. Malachi 3:10-12

Ask the Holy Spirit.

Sometimes there could be specific areas that the Holy Spirit wants you to surrender, and because we all are on different journeys; others may not tell you because they don’t know. So, you can ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and show you areas you could surrender to God. Always remember that the Holy Spirit, your teacher, wants to help you live a surrendered life. But He wants you to allow Him to lead you as you do.

Jesus did not leave us as orphans, rather, He sent the Holy Spirit to be our helper and to guide us into all truths.

¹⁵ “If you love me, keep my commands. ¹⁶ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be^[a] in you. ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:15-17

“All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:25-26

4 Practical ways that will help you live a surrendered life.

Focus on what you can control. You see, as long as you focus on the things outside your control, you will not learn to live a surrendered life. Today, I want to encourage you to relinquish control. Don’t try to figure out everything. Give yourself the grace to embrace every season. Anytime you find yourself stressed about a particular outcome, I want you to ask yourself this question, Can I control it? Is there something within my power that I can do as it pertains to it? If the answer is no, then let it be.

Develop patience. The realization that everything will happen when it is supposed to will help you live a surrendered life. Besides, you will be flexible enough to accommodate circumstances you did not plan for. Patience is a virtue and a fruit of the Holy Spirit. Could your struggle to live a surrendered life be because you are impatient? God has not forgotten you. Give yourself over to the training He is doing at this point of your life.

• OVERCOME ANXIETY THE BIBLICAL WAY!
• The Proven Method to Relinquish control and Minimize Setbacks in Your Life
• How To Know God Is Drawing You To Him.
• JESUS IS THE ONE WHO TRANSFORMS!
• HOW TO BE STILL AND LEAN ON GOD

Practice gratitude. Celebrating the seemingly small things in your life will help you live a surrendered life. There is power in surrender. This is because someone living a life of surrender has the awareness that things don’t happen to him/her but for them. They realize that even the bad things will work out for their good. And that is where gratitude comes in. It helps you minimize complaining and embrace the journey.

Be present. Focus on the now and here. Embrace every season you are in. Live in the moment and don’t allow the uncertainty of the future to keep you from enjoying every season. Find the good in your now. There is beauty in every season: even the seemingly difficult ones.

Conclusion.

When you say you are surrendered to God, you need to back up with your actions. In what way can your life show others that your life is surrendered to God? What other ways do you think you can live a surrendered life? Drop them in the comments below. And remember you will not always get it right, but because of the mercy of God, He is not after perfection but effort. The Holy Spirit will empower you to live a surrendered life when you give Him your yes. He will convict you when you are going down the wrong path so that you can turn to Him. Don’t get discouraged in your moments of weakness, repent and move forward.

One more thing, Jesus says that when you lose your life for His sake, you will gain it. So, the greatest benefit of surrender is that the One you are surrendered to is perfect and sovereign, so it is not all in vain. He will exchange your imperfect, flawed life for eternal life. And through your surrender, you will receive a purpose and life that is greater than what you could have ever imagined. Jesus has a great and rewarding future for you, but the catch is, it is on the other side of your surrender. Give Him your yes and watch the transformation that will happen in every area of your life.