This morning, I will embark on a 5-part series of blog posts regarding prayer in the life of a disciple. I pray that these reflections from my journey are helpful in yours.

Prayer is a conversation, and conversations need to be two-way; otherwise, they are just a lecture from one person to another. Quite often, in our hectic lives, we rush to move on to the next thing on our plate, and we do not take the time to engage with the person. Before a person completes a sentence, we form our reply, or our mind wanders to something completely different. We do it with our spouses, children, and co-workers, developing our expected answer to a question we pose without giving them a chance to speak. Our prayer life is no different, and we know prayer is essential, so we recite a few well-rehearsed lines or formal prayers, followed by our list of demands, and then we move on with our day without another thought about it. This is not the type of prayer that God desires. We need to slow down, put our agenda aside and have a genuine two-way conversation with God. This means being quiet and listening for a reply to our questions.

The world would tell us that we must be in control in order to be successful in anything. We must lead from a place of power, and surrender means admitting defeat. Indeed, even Merriam-Webster defines surrender as “the action of yielding one’s person or giving up the possession of something, especially into the power of another.”[1] Giving up one’s hard-earned possessions is difficult for many even to consider. I would propose, however, that what God is offering when He desires a surrender to Christ is to have us give up something that is keeping us apart from having a closer relationship with Him.

We are called to give up our old selves when we surrender to Christ, and when we do this, we release ourselves from sin’s power over our lives. The Bible confirms this, ^“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin” (Rom 6:6).[2] Giving up our old self does not mean acting like a defeated hero and giving up our identity. Surrender to Jesus Christ means that we realize that we have hope that He has a better plan for our lives that we can design on our own. The apostle James tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas 4:7). We do not submit out of fear or threat but out of the deep longing for a life free from slavery and abuse that comes from sin.

Have a blessed week,

Pastor Michael

You can find more posts on the PSC website: Pure Springs Blog Posts – Pure Springs Church

[1] “Definition of SURRENDER,” accessed October 22, 2022, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surrender.

[2] All Scripture references are from the ESV translation unless otherwise noted.