The Wisdom of Surrender

When I was in college, in my sophomore year, I had a hard conversation with my then mentor named Doug. He and I were doing my annual review of how I did as a mentoree and how I was doing as a ministry intern. He looked at me and asked me a question I will never forget. “Marv, do you want to be a good pastor or a great pastor?” I arrogantly thought to myself: “I’m already on track to be great!” but, I said with my lips: “Of course I desire to be a great pastor”. He then said another thing I will never forget: “Then you need counseling.” I was blown away by this and said I would consider it, but I truly thought he was wrong and there was no way I would do such a thing. I called my dad right away to complain. I shared what Doug had said to me and my dad simply said: “I think he’s right”. Again, I was shocked. I was in disbelief and anger, so I called my finance…she’d be on my side! After all, she thought I was amazing. So, I called her and even she said: “Yeah, I think I agree with them.” Here I was blindsided with my own inadequacy all the while I thought I was the man. God was asking me to surrender my pride and become more of the man He had designed me to be. I eventually surrendered, went through counseling and I was never the same. There was wisdom in my surrender. This past Monday, I was in my men’s Bible study that I’ve been a part of for over 5 years now. We were discussing the topic of surrender. We probed each other with questions like: Why is it so hard to surrender over to the Lord? Why is it hard to fully trust that he’s in control? Much of our rejection of surrender boils down to control and fear.

We desire to be in control of our own fates because we fear if we let go, something will go awry, many times, we feel we know best. Surrender seems to have a bad connotation to it, even when we discuss it within the framework of a loving Father. Surrender for many of us signifies giving up, raising the white flag, and then we are conquered, this for many of us seems hopeless, but I believe there is wisdom in surrender, in the right circumstance that is. I believe this larger portion of Scripture answers this question: “How can we be wise and surrender?”

READ- 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16

Recognize our inadequacy and realize His sufficiency (vs. 18-31)

In the Corinthian church, there were both Jews and Gentiles and as we discussed in the last post, there were divisions popping up throughout the entire church based on which person they would follow. Philosophy and wisdom teaching moved much of their culture as we discussed in the last post as well, and that way of living caused the church members of the Corinthian church to live prideful lives.

This then caused the church members to try and be holy on their own, not relying upon God to lead and teach them, but they believed they were adequate enough. They desired God’s power, but didn’t desire to surrender to Him. Paul then goes on to finish the first chapter with a description of just how low they (and we) are compared to God and His wisdom. The Corinthian church was living arrogantly as if they were the bees knees, and the holiest of the holies…but Paul brought them back down to earth with his statements. Especially when he says: “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (vs. 25). This church, in its arrogance thought their wisdom was enough. I fear we too live similarly. Many of us live as if God is an accessory, rather than our Lord. We act as if our wisdom is all we need and God is our buddy whom we meet with once a week. Yet, we are shown here of our desperate need. The Corinthian culture upheld wisdom and philosophy as the thing of utmost importance. This then led to severe arrogance when God began to do amazing things in their midst, they attributed it to themselves, rather than to God. When God shows up, we point to Him, not to ourselves. When we look at ourselves in view of God’s greatness, mercy and love, we quickly realize how small we really are. Warren Weirsbe said of this passage: “The Corinthians had a tendency to be “puffed up” with pride (1 Cor. 4:6, 18–19; 5:2). But the Gospel of God’s grace leaves no room for personal boasting”.^[1] God’s grace dwarfs any accomplishments we could ever hope to have. That’s why Paul states: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord”. God is sufficient whilst we are insufficient. God is all we need while we in and of ourselves are inadequate. Surrendering to someone who knows better is the wisest course of action. My surrendering in college allowed me to become a better husband, pastor, father and friend. Letting go of my pride and self-sufficiency changed my life and Paul is saying that if we do this in everything, it will change everything.

 Paul then moves to the what-recognizing our inadequacy and his sufficiency and leads us to the how, answering this question of how can we become wise and surrender?- Resting our faith in God’s power, not Man’s wisdom

 

Resting our faith in God’s Power, not Man’s wisdom (vs. 2: 2-16)

In American culture, its either philosophy or science. American Christians try to prove God’s existence with science or using human reasoning when this is just not possible to do so. We can have good answers to hard questions, but trying to then launch into proving the existence of God to one who doesn’t believe isn’t the point. As one famous preacher used to say: “God doesn’t need us to prove he’s there, he’s a big boy”. The cross of Christ makes no sense outside of the illumination of the Holy Spirit. To the Jew the cross was a stumbling block (1:23a) because they were expecting a mighty warrior to be their Messiah and foolish to the Greek (1:23b) because they emphasized wisdom over everything and someone dying to bring life seemed philosophically antithetical and unproductive. This too is how many Americans see the cross of Christ, either as a stumbling block or foolishness and nonsensical. That is why, we as the church and as individuals must rest our faith in the power of God through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Too much evangelism goes on in todays world resting on man’s wisdom and is devoid of the power of God. Many attempt to argue others into believing the Gospel, when this is simply not the approach we are to take. Not even Paul, one of the wisest men in history attempted to do this (2:4). We are to be a people of surrender and dependence, but we’ve become a people of self-reliance.

I truly believe that a revival is coming, that God desires to do ridiculous, unexplainable, miraculous stuff. However, if we are to see this happen, we have to begin to be individuals and a church that seek His face and depend on Him and not ourselves. When we desire to share our faith, rather than try to argue someone into the Kingdom, we need to rely on the Spirit and His discernment, asking Him to speak through us, not ourselves. I am not the only one who has that capability, I believe God desires to use your life and your story and your mouth to speak His words this year, because you didn’t receive a junior Holy Spirit, you’ve got access to His fullness! One of the most powerful lines in this entire portion of scripture is “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ”. Through the indwelling Spirit of Christ, we can have the mind of Christ. We can be used by Him as if He were here! That’s where the idea of the name “Christian” came from. It means “Little Christ. We as individuals and the church need to once again become Little Christ’s who live in the fullness of the Spirit’s power so we too can really live as having the Mind of Christ!

 

DL Moody learned this lesson in his lifetime. When he became really famous and was interviewed about what was happening, he attributed it all to the Holy Spirit. He said something along the lines of: “I was transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. When that happened, people started getting saved and changed. I was preaching the same messages as I was before, but now with the Holy Spirit and not me, power came as did the change”. These were the same sermons, simply with a different Spirit. Instead of depending upon himself, he was depending on the Holy Spirit and that surrender was the wisest move of his life because it changed everything. Surrendering to the Spirit’s power can do the same for us, individually and corporately!

 

In order to cultivate a deeper intimacy with the Spirit, we need to make time for Him in our lives. I challenge you this week to set aside time to develop your intimacy with the Lord. Read His Word, pray, engage in community and share what God is speaking to you, test it and see how much he reveals to you! Be wise and surrender to Him and His agenda, not your own.

 

 

^[1] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 571). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.