Surrender To Win Series

There was only one general that threw fear into the mighty warriors of the Roman Army, and that man was Hannibal of Carthage. Carthage was in North Africa, and was the rival of Rome. It was the only power great enough to keep Rome from ruling the world. For over 60 years they fought a desperate struggle, and Rome was winning. Then in 218 B.C. Hannibal took command of the armies of Carthage, and for 16 years he out-fought and outwitted the Romans. One of his key weapons was a herd of 80 trained war elephants that would charge the enemy lines and soften them up for defeat.

Rome could not believe the success of Hannibal. He captured a good part of Italy, and began to plan the taking of Rome itself. All of history would have been changed had a Roman general Scipio not gotten a good idea. When Hannibal's elephants charged in the battle of Zama, which could decide the fate of the world, he had loud trumpets blown that scared the elephants and sent most of them back into Hannibal's lines disrupting them and giving the Romans a chance to attack. Hannibal lost that decisive battle, and Rome went on to conquer the world. Hannibal never did surrender, but went on trying to fight Rome the rest of his life, but he never regained enough power to make a difference. He is one of the heroes of history because he never gave up.

It is legitimate to never surrender even if you cannot win, when the battle is against evil. There are some battles that are perpetual and cannot be won. The battle with sin and forces of evil is never over in this life, therefore, it is a perpetual battle. We are not to surrender and give up, but like Paul, press on fighting a good fight to the end. Many a scientist and doctor has fought against disease, and died before they found the answer, but they did not surrender, and those who came after them built on their foundation and won the victory. Thank God for those who never surrender.

On the other hand, it is folly not to surrender when you are fighting with God. The first man, Adam, ran from God when he had sinned, and tried to escape from admitting his sin, and surrendering to God. This has become the pattern ever since, and we see it so clearly in the life of the rich young ruler. He was basically a good guy, and from his youth he had been religious, and tried his hardest to please God. Jesus said only one thing thou lackest. Wouldn't that be great to lack just one thing? That would be easy to solve, and you would be in. Except, the one thing he lacked was the ability to surrender. For him his problem was his wealth. He clung to it, and depended on it. It was his idol, and he just could not surrender and yield to Christ as his Lord, and give his all to him. It doesn't make any difference if you are an up-and-outer; a down-and-outer, or middle-and-outer. The real battle of life is in deciding, can I surrender to Christ or not?

This is the kind of battle where the only winners are those who surrender. Life has two kinds of battles. The kind where, when you surrender you lose, and the kind where, when you surrender you win. The first step to sobriety in AA is to acknowledge your life is unmanageable and in our own power you cannot stop drinking. In other words, the first step to victory is surrender. You have to give up on yourself, and say I can't win, for as long as you think you can and keep fighting in your own self-sufficient strength, you will keep on losing. But when you surrender, and yield yourself to God's power, then you begin the journey to victory.

Some men can stop drinking on their own, but no man can be saved on his own. The only way to be saved in your own strength is to never have sinned, and that is not possible, for as the Bible says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. It is always too late to save yourself, because you are always a sinner, and no one has the power to not be what he is. To go on fighting trying to save yourself, and make a meaningful life in your own power is to fight as foolish a battle as those Japanese soldiers who kept fighting for an island many years after the war was over. It is doomed to failure.

The only way to win in this war is to surrender. But man is by nature stubborn, and that is why man is his own worse enemy. If you kick the man in the seat of his pants who gives you the most trouble, you wouldn't be able to sit down for a week. Most men just can't let go and let God. They are proud and feel they must save themselves. They are like the man shipwrecked in the ocean. A rescue boat found him and they threw him a lifeline. But he says, "I have been swimming from my youth, and have done exercises every day. I'll swim to shore and save myself." But they shout at him," one thing thou lackest, the humility to recognize that you need a Savior. You need to give up depending on your own strength, and surrender to the power of our rescue boat." But he, in his stubbornness, refuses the life line, and they must go on to find others, knowing he will never make it.