SURRENDER
Jeremiah 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. 18 But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.’”
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”
20 “They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared."
Meaning of surrender is to give oneself over to something, to agree to stop fighting, hiding, resisting, etc., because you know that you will not win or succeed.
Surrendering to God isn’t about admitting defeat, its victory for a Christian when he surrenders to Christ and allows Him to mold, lead and shape Him daily.
Having said that, let me explain the meaning of the scripture. For the last several days I have been meditating on the book of Jeremiah and God has been working on me – inside - out! Cleansing and washing me with His blood; nevertheless, it takes several times of washing in order to get to where God wants us to be! Bear fruits in keeping with repentance… Luke 3:8. All prophet Jeremiah told the people of Israel is that they have to SURRENDER to the officers of the king of Babylon, this is pretty scary, the enemies might tear them to shreds. However, look what the Lord says: “your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live”. Hallelujah! Blessings come when we trust God and surrender! But if they disobey then they will be destroyed said the Lord. Surrender is key in Christian life; however, let us dig deep into it today. Surrender is not about shaving your head for God, one particular boy with thick curly hair, shaved it off and came bald on Monday morning. He told me, ‘now girls will not look at me’, I explained how naïve and silly that was. Surrender is not about wearing white clothes, removing jewels, going bare foot or looking like a monk. I am not here to criticize the above but I would like to emphatically say that is not surrender.
1) WE NEED TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS:
2) GET DOWN BEFORE ME
3) OBEY THE LORD
1) WE NEED TO GO THROUGH THE PROCESS:
What Jeremiah meant when he told the people to surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon is that “God wanted them to surrender to the process of this dangerous journey because through this their soul would learn obedience and dependence on God.” What else would we do and where else would we run, if we are surrounded by Babylonians? Tell me. We need to surrender to the plans of God which would never harm US! Clap hands for God! Jeremiah 29:11” For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
When we were commanded by God to relocate our ministry after 10 years of serving in Chennai, to a new State Hyderabad, where the culture, language and everything was new, we obeyed immediately. In a couple of months we had moved; nevertheless, God did not say that it would be smooth-sailing, it was turbulent from day one. I write this portion after almost 15 years of shifting, we are now able to speak, write and read in the local language Telugu (not perfect though); yet, we still face lot of hardships, people still consider us as outsiders (Christians inclusive). There is a prize you have to pay in order to surrender to the will of God! I quote the words of Apostle Paul here: Galatians 2:20 The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
“When our hearts are surrendered totally to the will of God, then we delight in seeing Him use us in any way He pleases.” Rev Billy Graham
2) GET DOWN BEFORE ME
God is looking for changes in our innermost being!
I would like to share a portion from the book titled ‘Keys to inner healing’ by Jamie Buckingham. Jamie a Baptist minister describes his wonderful experience of being filled with Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. One particular day, after an argument with his wife, he walked out from the bed room, banging the door and went out. It was past midnight, the grass and the small rocks under his feet were wet with dew, even though he felt guilty of behaving badly; yet, his pride did not allow him to go back inside. He started praying out loudly to God asking for forgiveness but there was no answer. He asked God, ‘what should I do now?’ After a long pause, deep inside him, he heard a whisper that said:’ Get down before me.’ Immediately without hesitation, Jamie went down on his knees on the moist wet leaves. Again he heard the voice say: GET DOWN BEFORE ME, so now he prostrated on the wet, muddy floor. Jamie expected something spectacular to happen; yet, NOTHING happened. Then he realized God was expecting him to come down from his high horse of pride and humble himself before God, rather than prostrate on the floor, which even the pagans do.
Likewise, many of us think that surrender is something physical only, like raising hands during worship; however, that should be followed up with the good deeds and fruitful living. Just while meditating this portion, we were praying for a blood cancer patient who has an infection near his anus, which is quite large, emitting pus and poo too. This infection was giving him more pain than the cancer cells. We heard the painful groans of the patient as he prayed in a mobile conference prayer. It was heart-rending! However, through this agony and pain, the family were getting close to God. Salvation of souls is key for God. Say Amen.
When God said “Surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon’, His eyes were on their souls and getting them ready for Heaven. He is a good God. Babylon can be different in each of our lives, it can be:
• Terminal illness
• Financial Bankruptcy
• Divorce
• Disobedient children
• Accident
• Abortion
Some of us would want to escape all the above but God wants us to SURRENDER to the process so that we get transformed. Amen.
I had received a long stinking audio note that harshly scolded me, the voice was not from a stranger but from someone very close to me. It was ringing and reverberating in my ears, I managed not to reply even a single word but just logged out, but I was not able to forget it. Even after several days, I did not explain things to that person, ask for reasons, just did nothing about it; I was not able to forget it, though. Recently I was planning to write just a one liner “ DON’T HEREAFTER SEND SUCH AUDIOS, TRY TO UNDERSTAND BEFORE YOU RECORD.” The Lord strongly came against it and said, ‘do nothing.’ Though there were tears in my eyes, I refrained from doing it. This is surrender!!! Anybody listening? Some of us want to thrash it out, reason it out…..but the Lord says: 1 Samuel 17:47: “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord's..” Not by sword or spear……..
3) OBEY THE LORD
Surviving Babylon would be tough but remember God is with you in it. The Lord promised through Jeremiah:
20 “They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.
Jesus told His disciples: “Matthew 16:24 – “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Boy, this is awesome! Many of us want a route map to the destination, blue print of the plan and much more but God said’ take up the cross and follow.' Period. Obedience is saying YES to God and surrendering to His plans for our life. God is not going to ignore people who are obedient and who take all efforts to please God despite the inconveniences.
Isaiah 26: 3 You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD himself, is the Rock eternal.
If you are facing problems in your marriage, do not file for divorce, patiently pray and work on setting right the broken parts, God will help you come out victoriously. If your facing problems in your work front or business, do not quit or resign……no……no….stay and be a conqueror. Be it mockery, criticism, humiliation or failure, persevere and be an overcomer rather than a coward to escape.
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
