Tonight I am struck by the reminder of how often we all fall short of God’s glory and how often we all must learn to truly surrender. At this thought I looked up the literal definition of surrender which was as follows: 1.to yield (something) to the possession or power of another, 2.to give (oneself) up, as to the police. 3.to give (oneself) up to some influence, course, emotion, etc. 4.to give up, abandon, or relinquish. 5.to yield or resign (an office, privilege, etc.) in favor of another. 6.to give oneself up, as into the power of another; submit or yield.

Now what struck me as odd as I read all of these was that in America, this word of “surrender” is given as a negative connotation (“as to the police” or to loose hope as in the definition from #3). How often have we taken our surrender to God as a negative rather than the gift that it is? In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus is teaching about the promise of rest for the soul as he said “Come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly and the burden I give you is light.”

To surrender to God is a something that has to be learned (and I believe continually worked on) but it is not a burden but a mercy, it is a gift of grace from a Lord who loves his children and wants to help them. For the only thing he asks of us is to love him, for if we love him with all we are and give ourselves completely to him (surrender) then the other “commandments” that he desires will naturally fall into place.

What does it take to love God? Matthew 22:37-40 says that Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the greatest commandment. A second equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ (Lev. 19:18, as the Jewish leaders would know that Jesus was quoting this from scripture) All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

So, love with all your heart mind, soul, and strength or to put it in a way that is more literal to what it actually means, Love God with all of your desires and all of your affections, love him with all of your will and emotions, love him with all of the intellect and reason you can muster, and finally, love him with every physical fiber in your being through your services to God.

It was said in a sermon I heard recently that love is and inner commitment to God that I show through my conduct: by obeying him, by following him, by becoming like him, by asking for his wisdom, and by simply telling him I love him. That last one is one that I think we often over look but is so incredibly vital. I love to hear “I love you” from Kyle, from my parents, from the people that I love; why would it be different from our Heavenly Father who loves us with a greater love than we can even comprehend?

A while back I wrote out 1 Corinthians 13, inverting the word “Love” with “God.” Read through that again and remember to tell God that you love him. He is waiting for you to surrender yourself to him so that he can show you how much he loves you and all he asks in return is that you love him back. “For my burden is light…”