How to Give God Control: 5 Scriptures on Surrendering to God
As morning broke, I recently left my usual chair and walked outside to the deck. The world was teeming with energy and life. Songbirds surrounded me as I opened my Bible in search of Scriptures on surrendering to God and slowing my pace.
I needed this encouragement because summer break has come.
Our oldest children will be home for the next two months. As much as I love these days together, I also fight the urge to rush from one task to the next.
In the summertime, I struggle to keep up with the dishes, the laundry, and the constant requests for snacks and entertainment. I feel like I can’t keep up, and I find it difficult to quiet my racing mind.
For these reasons, reminding myself how to surrender to God is helpful.
Regardless of what you’re facing today, perhaps you could use these reminders, too.
5 Scriptures on Surrendering to God
I used to think surrender was all about standing on mountaintops with open arms and declaring that I’d follow God anywhere. After years of standing on mountaintops and spouting declarations, God showed me that surrender often looks more like walking through dark valleys, obediently taking the next step when I’m not sure I can keep going.
Surrender looks like yielding to God and finding a reason to give thanks after many long months of debilitating illness.
Surrender looks like getting out of bed for the fifth time to tend to the newborn or the loved one who needs you.
It looks like dragging the garbage can to the end of the driveway on a blustery Monday evening and picking up the phone to check in with the relative who hasn’t been responding to your messages.
Meanwhile, here’s what God’s Word has to say about surrender:
Insights and Scriptures on Surrendering to God
1. We surrender to God when we trust in his plan.
Isaiah 45:9 reminds us that God is the Potter and we are the clay in his hands: “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?”
Surrender is trusting that when God’s ways don’t make sense, we will obey him because we trust him.
Are you struggling with a part of your life that doesn’t make sense to you? God is inviting you to surrender to him by continuing to follow him, trusting that his plans for you are good.
He is not asking you to control the outcome of your challenging situation. Instead, continue to give your best effort, be a good steward of the work he places in front of you, and trust that he will bring his plans to pass in your life.
Surrender is trusting that when God’s ways don’t make sense, we will obey him because we trust him. #surrender Share on X2. We surrender to God when we live from our identities in Christ.
In his letter to the Galatian church, Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Galatians 2:20).
What does it mean to be crucified with Christ?
When I’m crucified with Christ, I don’t live to fulfill my desires. I don’t chase comfort or make the pursuit of success an ultimate goal. My goal is to know Christ and make him known. I live from my identity as his beloved child, and this identity drives my words, thoughts, attitudes, and actions.
From this position, I willingly submit to him and follow him because I know that I am precious to him.
Scriptures on Surrendering to God With Our Bodies:
3. We surrender to God by putting the needs of others above our own needs.
Today, surrendering to God might look like setting aside your plans to reach out to a loved one in need.
It might look like holding your agenda with open hands as you let your kids or your grandkids interrupt your schedule.
Perhaps God is calling you to resist the urge to manage your image and, instead, humbly let someone else see the real you.
Jesus’ words in Mark 8:35 offer the following reminder: “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35).
4. We surrender to God when we willingly take up our crosses.
Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24).
What does it mean to take up our crosses?
Every opportunity to deny yourself for the good of others and the glory of God is an opportunity to take up your cross.
You take up your cross when you resist the desire to defend yourself, exalt yourself, or prove that you are right.
You take up your cross when you let God work in your heart to chisel away the parts of you that don’t bring him glory. Furthermore, you take up your cross every time you use your energy to serve others.
5. God calls us to surrender our bodies in service to him—and he calls this surrender worship.
In his letter to the Roman church, Paul wrote, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship” (Romans 12:1).
We surrender to God when we use our bodies to serve him.
Whether we’re cooking dinner, scrubbing the floors, or going about the day in our workplaces, we put our whole hearts into everything we undertake.
We work as if we’re directly serving Jesus. We give thanks, cultivate joy, and work prayerfully. This is worshipful work. This is surrender.
As for me, surrendering to God today will include enjoying my kids instead of barking orders.
I’ll throw the football with Caleb, drive trucks in the sandbox with Aiden, and draw with Bekah. I won’t feel very productive in terms of the housework or the projects I’m trying to knock out this summer.
Nevertheless, I will have a deep sense that I’ve leaned into these Scriptures on surrendering to God and that I’m moving in the direction of the life I want to live.
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Calling All Mothers and Daughters!
Lastly, in addition to writing to adults, I am passionate about ministering to the next generation.
Would you like to connect with your tween or teen daughter and help her grow closer to God? My 12-year-old daughter, Bekah, and I wrote a mother-daughter devotional book just for you. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith includes 60 devotions with Scripture, commentaries from both of us, conversation starters, and even a shared journaling section.
Our vision is for girls ages 7-17 to enjoy it with their moms, grandmas, or older women they look up to. However, mothers and daughters of all ages are using this book to grow closer together! This book makes a wonderful gift for a mother or daughter you care about!
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