Monday Night English Disciple -Absolute Surrender Book Report > 제자학교

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Before I take any bold step of surrender, it is deeply comforting to know that God Himself prepares me and enables me to do so—because I cannot even initiate surrender on my own. This is why Andrew Murray calls it a “feeble desire.” All I need to say is, “I am willing that God will make me willing.”

I am willing to enter His process—to allow Him to prepare my heart, to make me vulnerable before Him, to let Him have His way in me, and to make me willing. Like everything else, I can’t—but God can. Acknowledging this is already my first act of surrender to God.

What comforts me even more is the assurance that God, who began a good work in me, will carry it on to completion. Even when my faith wavers, He remains faithful, for He is the God of covenant.

To surrender to God is to allow the Spirit of love “to come and banish selfishness and pride, and to bring the love of God into the hearts of men.” I cannot surrender by my own strength, but only by the Spirit. And since the fruit of the Spirit is love, I become to dwell in the love of God by surrendering myself.

Another truth I reflected on is that God does not desire mechanical surrender. He desires surrender that flows out of love for Him, as the Spirit fills our hearts with God’s love. Once love from God and love for God are established within us, surrender becomes a daily life lived in love for others.

What hinders us from loving others as God loves is the self. I, myself becomes a stumbling block to love others.  As Andrew Murray says, “Self was the cause of the fall of man.” He says that it is either denying self or denying Christ. Peter, after denying Jesus three times, learned to deny self—not partially, but completely.

The cause of failure is often that we first attempt to do part of the work ourselves and then ask God to complete the rest. This is exactly how I am. I do rely on God—but not fully. I need to become utterly helpless, as Murray describes, and allow God to do it all. That is why surrender is not partial, but absolute surrender.