Faith, Surrender, or Striving?

I recently read a quote from a prominent Christian preacher, it went like this; “Faith is a result of surrender, not striving.”

The faith movement in our country says we must, fight, confess, and do, do, do; sounds a little more like striving than surrender, so I spent some time looking deeper.

Surrendering by definition is to, “give oneself up to the power of another, or to yield to another.”  It has to do with submitting ourselves and giving place.

The definitions are Biblical and are what we must to do in order to be saved and to serve God. Amen!

Striving on the other hand is to, “make a great effort to achieve or obtain something.”  Is our faith in our actions, or is our faith in God?

To be an effective witness or ambassador, (which is a representative of another Kingdom) requires us to rely on the Holy Spirit to lead us and that my friend is “yielding.”

Living by faith means to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Believers must appropriate daily, to live as Christians by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. This means that believers must trust the Spirit to empower them in specific instances, such as; temptation, being faithful, and sharing our faith.

Surrender teaches us this daily spiritual interaction and faith requires an act of surrender by those who accept Jesus Christ. Wow!  So, at this point, I am definitely leaning towards surrender, how about you?

Most people including Christians get stuck on this surrender word.  We want to keep control, which leads to striving and not surrendering. Hold that thought!

I believe faith comes in stronger when we trust God and quit striving.  Yes, we fight to hold onto the Word God has shown us, but sometimes that doesn’t require a lot of confessing and work, sometimes we just need to get quiet and surrender.

Meditation helps us surrender.  Claiming, fighting, and striving can lead to confusion, and let’s be honest, clarity from God comes when we get quiet in the Word and surrender ourselves to Him. Amen!

Something great happens when we truly realize that He cares for us and that He will take our striving and replace it with peace and rest.  This is the most contentment we can ever gain. Glory to God!

For most of us, it takes mind renewal to be able to surrender to God, cast our cares over onto Him, and then patiently wait for God to fight our battles. All the faith giants in the Bible did just that. Amen!

Yes, they fought some outstanding fights of faith, just as we have and will, but in the end (and the reason they are in the Book) is because they relied on God and they submitted to Him.

It is our job to cry out the Word, and then God goes into action.  We surrender to Him, and He causes our enemies to surrender to us while we patiently trust His love.

Here is another quote God gave me, “We will never enter into God’s rest without patience and surrender”; this quote was given, “by faith.”

You see “by faith” will never stop being how we receive from God, but striving isn’t faith, surrendering is!

God’s system is already victorious; all we need to do is quit fighting Him!

Sometimes we get mixed up on who or what our faith is in. Our faith should not be in our confessing, although it is necessary; our faith should not be in our works, although they are necessary.  Our faith should be in God, Who always causes us to triumph. Amen!

Here is a statement that is pretty bold, but I believe to be biblically correct, “To be led by the Spirit, you must surrender to God!”  This statement is also true, just because we say what someone else says or follow someone’s ministry doesn’t mean we have surrendered anything to God.

It is our heart that God is after and until we surrender our heart to God we are bound by the enemy.  Faith working through love will get us our breakthrough from striving to surrender. Amen!

It takes greater faith to surrender than it does to strive, and striving will never produce salvation, but surrendering will! That is the exciting plan of God, so we surrender ourselves under God’s mighty hand and He will exalt us in due time! Amen! That is 1 Peter 5:6.

God wants our hearts; He wants to lead us by our spirit.  For Him to have this place in our lives we must do and say what Jesus said, “Not My will, but Your will be done”. Jesus lived to only please the Father, as we surrender, we will too.

So I will end with this; keep confessing, keep doing the things of God, keep claiming the Word, but always surrender your heart, soul, mind, and strength to your good Father God, “First.”

I surrender all, how about you? And yes I say this, “by Faith.”

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

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Scriptures of encouragement and content, Acts 1:8, Proverbs 23:26, Galatians 2:20, John 12:49, 2 Corinthians 4:16, Ephesians 4:23, Matthew 11:28, Ephesians 2:8-9, Mark 11:21-22, Romans 8:14-17, and, Matthew 16:24-25, “Then Jesus said to His disciples, if anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever surrenders his life for My sake will find it”! Emphasis added.