If I’m honest, when I hear the word ‘surrender’ it can hold negative connotations for me. If I ‘surrender’ to the enemy, surely I have given in and given up. If I ‘surrender’ to temptation, I have let something (normally cake) get the better of me.
But surrendering in a spiritual sense is something God desires of me. So what does it mean to surrender to Father God? How can I do it? Why should I do it? And, whilst I’m at it, why should you?

One of the most well-known verses in Psalm 46, and one that I have written about before, is ‘Be still and know that I am God.” The command to ‘Be still!’ in the original is, to quote Stephen Fry, ‘quite interesting.’ Forgive this amateur detour and preamble into the murky depths of the ancient language of Hebrew, but its really helpful stuff.

The verb here comes from the word ‘rapha’ which means ‘to be weak, to let go, and to release.’ This might be better translated as ‘to cause yourself to let go’ or ‘allow yourself to become weak.’ Mmmm. Hands up who finds that easy? What? No hands?
Nope. Me neither my friend.

I can still remember a little of my Old Testament Theology from University. I am a bit rusty though so had to look this up again today. In Hebrew grammar, the emphasis in a pair of coordinate imperatives (like ‘be still!’ and ‘know!’) is always on the second imperative. In normal terms then the POINT of stillness is to know God. Both are very good for us, but we need to realise that the second is much more important than the first. We surrender is order to understand Him more.
My revelation about this verse today was this:
We ‘let go’ to gain.
We ‘stay still’ in order to move forward.
We ‘stop’ in order to start.

Now, that is just the most upside-down and back-to-front way of looking at anything isn’t it? But, let me demonstrate something for you, if I may be so bold.
God is big, yes?
He is in charge, yes?
He is good, yes?
We know all this, don’t we?
So why is it then that we panic, fear, dread, become unsettled or derailed when things do not appear to happen in the ways we imagined?

It is because we try to be strong. We try to be brave. We try to be copers. We try to ‘get on with it.’ We try to be independent. Then we fall over, often taking the nearest person with us.

You and I are not designed to live independently of God. We are designed to need Him very much indeed. I HATE it when people say we have a ‘God-shaped hole’ in our lives. As if God has a shape, or that our lives just have a small gap without Him! Pah! Rubbish! Poppycock and downright lies!! Thats like buying ‘fun-sized’ Mars Bars. Fun does NOT have a size. And if it did, it would be a darn sight bigger than three centimetres!! Loving something with your last Rolo means more if its a bigger Rolo…

The truth is our lives are empty, void and nothing without Him, not just a little bit less than they could be. The point of this lovely Psalm is to remind us that we need to be weak, to let go, to surrender and allow ourselves to be taken over in order to truly let God do His job and BE GOD.
I find that hard today (and every day) but notice it is an imperative, not an option. Its a command not a choice. Its a binding covenant not a bolt-on extra.