I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live
 
I surrender all,
I surrender all;
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

Did you find yourself singing that blessed old hymn? I bet many of you did. Not just the first verse, but the rest as well. I still am, just in my head, of course, where even I can sing well. Those words are powerful, moving, and stir my soul.

My only question is, do I?

Do I truly surrender all to Jesus? To Him do I freely give all? All that I have. All that I am. All that I need, and want, and fear, and foresee, and . . . everything else. Can I truly say that I give it all to Him?

I know I should. I know I can. I know He will accept it. But will I give? Will I give it all to Him?

What does that mean, anyway? To give it all to Jesus. If I give my possessions to Jesus, does that mean I empty my savings accounts into the offering plate and sign my house over to the church? To give my life to Him do I have to quit my job, live in poverty, and go live in the jungle as a missionary?

Maybe, but not necessarily. To give all to Him means to give up control. That means He may appoint me as steward over what He has given me, to govern and care for a certain set of possessions. It may also mean giving it away. It depends on what He tells me to do.

To give my children to God does not mean I don't have to care for them, nurture them, raise them and provide for them. I give them to Him and He in turns appoints me to watch over them. I have no less responsibility, I still have authority over them, but they are not truly mine. They belong to Him and are simply, for a time, in my care.

And so it is with all things. To give all to Jesus means to understand that whatever we have is not really ours. Everything was created by God, through God, for God. In opposition to common belief, God did not create this world for us. He created it for His glory, and appointed us as caretakers. He did not give it to us, it still belongs to Him.

The trials and struggles we go through also are not ours, because our very lives, and the lives of our family are not ours or theirs. Everyone is held in God's hand. He alone is sovereign. He alone has final say over what does, or does not, happen. We cannot hold too tightly to either the good or the hard, because neither are ours.

To say we give all to Jesus is simply to acknowledge reality. It is already His. We really can not give it to Him because He already has it. What we are doing is accepting the truth. We are facing the reality of what is. I cannot surrender possession that is not mine. What I surrender is any false sense of ownership I might be holding on to.

To surrender all to Jesus means, as those words above say, to trust Him. To really believe that I am living in His presence. To humbly bow at the feet of the Almighty, relinquishing control of every last thing, including my very life, over to Him.

So what are you holding on to? What have you not yet surrendered? Give it to Jesus. Allow Him to take it, and replace it with something infinitely better--His peace. His love. His power.

Give up those fears. Let go of those insecurities. Loosen your grip on your future. Because none of those are yours. They belong to Him. Let Him have them, and see what a true Master can do.