What does it mean to surrender my life to God?

Mark 8:34Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.”

Romans 12:1-2So, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Our surrender to God is as total as seeing ourselves as a sacrifice, no longer having rights to our will and our way. The world (and we) normally live to pursue what we want. Surrendering to God means we have embarked on a life of learning to want what God wants, to love what God loves.

Genesis 6:22So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.

Psalm 40:8I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.

Isaiah 6:8Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”

Isaiah 64:8Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.

Acts 9:6“Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

When we surrender to God, we give up what we think is best for us in order to receive what he knows is best for us. It involves the persistent desire to hear from God and a developed determination to do what God says.

Mark 8:33-35Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, he [Jesus] said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will save it.”

2 Corinthians 5:14-15Either way, Christ’s love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

Galatians 2:20My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Colossians 3:3You died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.

When we surrender to God, we ask Jesus to live in us and through us. What greater honor could we have than to have the Son of God accomplish his divine purposes through us?