Sunday 4 January

Living in Surrender

Scripture Reference:

Genesis 15:17-20

¹⁷ When the sun had set and darkness had fallen, a smoking fire pot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces.¹⁸ On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates— ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, ²⁰ Hittites, Perizzites, Rephaites

Colossians 3:13-15

¹³ Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.¹⁴ And over all these virtues put on love,which binds them all together in perfect unity. ¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

The new year is a perfect time to heal and grow. While reflecting, we may be reminded of hurt feelings. Rather than ignoring or letting those feelings create bitterness, we can choose the freedom of forgiveness. The first step toward forgiveness is surrender. 

“Surrender” can make people squeamish, especially regarding forgiveness. We tend to equate it with losing a battle—waving a white flag and allowing the enemy to overtake us. But when we surrender to God, we can view it differently. With God, surrender means being open-handed with our lives—even our hurt and pain—so that God can heal us from it. He is full of love, mercy, and compassion for each of us. We don’t have to be afraid to give our pain to God because we can trust Him to be tender and handle our hearts with care. 

We can also trust God to be fair. It’s natural for us to want to see someone pay the consequences of their actions. Even God has a righteous anger toward sin and injustice. But we have to accept that only God can judge a person’s heart. We don’t get to decide whether someone receives punishment or grace; holding on to our need for vengeance will only leave us bitter. 

If we want to live in peace this year, we must give our anger and pride to God and focus on our hearts. We must consciously choose to lay our pain and desire for control at His feet and ask Him to work in us. We must acknowledge that we need His help. As Christ followers, we practice forgiveness daily—even when we don’t want to. Sometimes, we must surrender the same pain to God multiple times when working through forgiveness. Now, forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened is ok. It doesn’t mean we let people continue to hurt us. And it doesn’t necessarily mean having a face-to-face conversation—the person doesn’t even have to be still alive for us to forgive them because it’s not about them. It’s an acknowledgement of a moment that is just between us and God. It’s about inviting Him in so He can heal our hearts.