Surrendered, but NOT Defeated!

I wrote an earlier post on surrendering all we are to Christ. You can read I Surrender here. Today I want to address surrender without defeat. If you are a believer, you should never surrender to defeat!

Why? Because as a believer, we are NEVER without hope, no matter what you are facing. Let’s just be honest…life is hard! Sometimes our own decisions cause us difficulty. Sometimes it’s the decisions of others. And often, it’s the work of the enemy whose job is to seek to keep believers living in defeat. Since he cannot change our eternity, he wants to cause us to live as though we have no hope as we dwell on earth.

Perhaps God uses hard times to make us yearn for heaven! I love the song by Matthew West, The Reason for the World. Take a look if you’re not familiar with it, or if you just need a reminder. Maybe if life on earth was “perfect” from our human viewpoint, we’d never want to leave it!

But as long as we are here, we must not get weary in doing His work. Galatians 6:7-10 is such an encouragement as Paul says: “Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us work for the good of all, especially for those who belong to the household of faith.” (CSB) Keep serving Christ as long as you have breath…then your reward comes when you no longer breathe on earth.

If you feel like your are drowning right now in some situation, envision that hand of a person going under that you see in the banner photo on this post to one of a hand reaching out to God as you see in this photo below.

Photo by Natalie Collins on Unsplash

Psalm 143:8 is my verse I spoke daily as I physically put my hand out to Him in surrender of a situation. It says, “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you. Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life.” (NIV) Or as another translation says, “for to you, I lift up my soul.”

That’s surrender without defeat! Defeat gives Satan the glory and I do not want to do that! That gives me strength to trust God in the midst of the battle. Yes, it’s still hard when I face a new challenge and I have to continually remind myself of these truths…that’s one reason I write these posts…it helps me remember what I know but tend to forget!

In Romans, we see a description of Abraham, who was willing to offer up his chosen son Isaac as a sacrifice on an altar. He knew God promised that this son would be the Father of many nations and yet God asked Him to kill Isaac. Really? He surrendered this son, but not in defeat because Abraham knew God could even raise him from the dead to accomplish His purpose. (Read that in Hebrews 11:17-19.) Abraham’s responsibility was to obey no matter what.

The Roman’s passage says this: “He did not waver in unbelief at God’s promise but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, because he was fully convinced that what God had promised, he was also able to do.”

So what had God promised you? He will never leave you (Hebrews 13:5), He will always be your Savior (John 10:28-29), He knows everything about you and your entire life (Psalm 139:13-16)….you add your own here. Say them back to God…the devil will hate that and you will be surrendered, but never defeated!