Hi, worshiping friend! During my few weeks off from writing new posts, I thought I’d send you some thoughts on worship topics from a variety of sources. This week I was pulled toward the important topic of surrender.
Surrender is an essential element of true worship – and one that we don’t give in to easily. Right? So here are 9 thoughts – posts, quotes, and songs – on surrender in worship to spark your personal reflection, mediation, and worship over the coming days. Enjoy!
1) Ooooh . . . may it be true of me!
We’re Christians, so we should understand surrender. Right? Both hands up (the international sign) – You’re God, and I’m not.
ur first act of surrender was when we first accepted Jesus’ payment on the cross for our sins and His victorious resurrection – embracing Him as Savior. And it continues day after day as we strive to surrender our will to His – confessing sin as His Spirit convicts us and choosing His way over ours – making Him Lord. So surrender plays a very important part in our daily Christian walk.
And it does in our worship life as well. In fact, the Bible says that only the heart that’s surrendered to God can stand before His throne to worship Him.
READ the rest of my post, Why True Worship Requires Your Surrendered Heart, here.
3) “If not to God, you will surrender to the opinions or expectations of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, or to your own pride, lusts, or ego. You were designed to worship God and if you fail to worship Him, you will create other things (idols) to give your life to. You are free to choose, what you surrender to but you are not free from the consequence of that choice.” ― Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here for?
4) I Surrender – Hillsong United Love this song. Click to listen.
The Sunday worship disconnect is real. I see and hear about it all the time. I’ve been there! And one of the main causes of it can deceptively sneak past us if we aren’t on the alert.
So how about some self-probing questions: How does the God that I sing about in church compare to the God that I allow into my life Monday through Saturday? Is the God I say I worship on Sunday my everyday God?
KEEP READING my post, Is the God I say I worship on Sunday my everyday God?, here.
6) This.
Surrender is an important topic for Christians. It can also be uncomfortable, confusing, and even repelling.
Several months ago I wrote a post, Why True Worship Requires Your Surrendered Heart, where I shared how the Bible teaches that only the surrendered heart can stand before God’s throne to worship Him: “Words are merely that – words – until poured out from a heart bowed before God. And the ‘bowing’ part is what makes it worship. Bowing is the heart’s response of submission and surrender to the God it’s exalting.”
We tend to view surrender as a negative thing – involving enemies and duress – that results in loss of freedom, forfeiture of blessings, and the degrading of the soul.
But when you surrender all that you are to a holy, loving, perfect and true God – it results in freedom . . . blessing . . . and renewal. More importantly, it results in glory for the one true God – our Savior!
While true submission is born in the heart, I constantly remind myself of the need to express that submission even further in my worship – because I keep running into verses like these:
READ MORE of my post, What should my surrender in worship look like?, here.
If any of these encouraged you, please pass them on to others! God bless!
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