Surrendering in Worship

Did you grow up in the church? 

Are you new to your relationship with Jesus? 

Did you recently decide to restart your walk with Jesus? 

Do you have it all together and don’t need to know anything else? HA!  If that is you, please reach out to teach us your tips!  (LOL!)

It does not matter where you are at with your relationship with Jesus. We should always be looking to evaluate our current state and desire to understand more on a deeper level. To know Him more. To understand why we do, or don’t do things and to understand how we do things. We will never fully arrive, until then… let’s take a little time to learn more. 

Sometimes Christians can say and do things but not always have the heart revelation of what they are saying or doing. First, let’s look at the definitions…

Surrender – cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority.

Worship – the feeling or expression of reverence and adoration for a deity.

I am a very visual person. I used to picture surrendering as a white flag waving in the air. The person waving the flag acknowledges defeat, feels sadness, shame, embarrassment, and fear. The whole scene would be negative for the one surrendering. It took me a while to figure out that surrender could become a good picture instead of a negative one. Jesus took me through some journeys where I realized how to surrender in a healthy and positive way. 

In the last blog, I spoke about a song I wrote that came out of a very painful season in my life. I learned that you can surrender in different ways and multiple times in the same areas of life. That in itself can be frustrating. However, if you are willing, you will grow deeper in your walk with God through that if you let Him show you, what He wants to show and teach you. 

I was planning to have a Sozo (an inner healing exercise/ministry) with one of our team members. Before our time together, she had me do a little homework with Jesus. She said, “Ask Jesus what He wants to deal with during your Sozo time”. I thought it would be about how to immediately heal the pain in my heart. NOPE! He wanted me to focus on surrendering. I literally asked God, “AGAIN?!” You can laugh, but it was true. I felt like I had already learned how to surrender to Jesus. 

We left our home church because we felt like God had told us that that chapter of our lives was closing. My family and I moved down to Southern CA. with nowhere to live and no income. It was ALL on faith! My husband changed jobs because he felt that God told him to close that chapter also. We have trusted and surrendered many times, and now God was asking me to surrender AGAIN!

 If you look back at the definition of surrender, you will see that it says, “Cease resistance to an enemy,” but then it also says “opponent.” Obviously, God is NOT our enemy! But I think that sometimes our choices make Him our opponent instead of our ally. We make plans and have thoughts that we do not invite God into and then get mad and stressed when it is not working out, nor can we hear God in the midst of it all. When you find yourself there….. Guess what?! It is time to surrender that moment, that thought, that circumstance, that emotion, that person, and your life to Jesus. 

Look at the scripture references below: 

Psalm 46:10 (The Passion Translation) 

Surrender your anxiety!

Be silent and stop your striving, and you will see that I am God.

I am the God above all the nations,

and I will be exalted throughout the whole earth. 

Psalm 46:10 (New Living Translation)

 “Be still, and know that I am God!

    I will be honored by every nation.

    I will be honored throughout the world.”

I think it is important that when you read the Bible, that you always find another translation to compare it to. Sometimes the words in one translation will speak more clearly to your circumstance and help bring clarity to how you process your thoughts and prayers with Jesus. For example: in The Passion Translation, it says, “surrender your anxiety”. In the New Living Translation, however, it says, “Be still and know that I am God”. The words may change but the message does not. Sometimes you need to hear “Just be still” or “chill out!” Other times you might need it to be more broken down for it to tell you exactly what to do, “surrender your anxiety”. 

All that being said, we should always be on the lookout for opportunities where we need to be surrendering to Jesus. Trust me. He would rather take care of us, than watch us try to take care of things on our own. 

Now, that we have discussed the importance of surrendering to Jesus, in all of our various stages of walks, we need to figure out how to use worship in the midst of surrendering. 

For me, worshipping comes easy. I am a worshipper. Technically, everyone is a worshipper. However, some people can connect more easily in worship despite the songs, music, singers, setlist, environment, lighting, ambiance, worship leader…..and the list goes on. Hey! I like all of those things, too! However, those are not the definition of worship. (Refer to the definition above) Worship is a feeling of reverence for our Father God. Worship is an action of the heart. Worship is a form of communication with God. Surrendering during your worship time with the Lord can be one of the most intimate, powerful, and freeing times that you can have with Jesus. 

Sometimes we think we know how to worship. We think we know how to surrender but, we don’t surrender in our worship, and we don’t surrender our worship to God. I am not shaming anyone. I am speaking from experience. I learned how to worship, and I learned how to surrender, but I didn’t necessarily put them together.

In worship, we close our eyes, lift our hands, clap, sway… WHY? 

The actions we do during our worship to God should be an external expression of what is happening in that moment. Answer those questions for yourself. I don’t think there is a wrong answer unless you are doing it for the wrong reasons. So take a second to ask yourself, why I do what I do?

I close my eyes so I can see His face and see what He wants me to see. 

I lift my hands to show that I surrender to Him and to praise 

His name and point to the One that is above it all! 

I clap because I get excited when I feel the Spirit moving in the room. 

(Also to help keep everyone else clapping on tempo LOL!)

I sway because my body can’t help but move when 

I feel God’s presence, and I feel Him near me. 

Like I said, there is no wrong answer. Just ask yourself. 

I want to challenge you as well. 

Think about where your walk is with Jesus. 

What areas do you need to surrender to Him?

Take those areas into your worship time. 

Let Him reveal more, or let Him just love on you. 

His peace truly does surpass anything that we can understand in our own circumstances and reasoning. 

Remember that He is for you! 

Remember that His love is never-ending and never failing. 

Remember that  He chose you!

Remember that His ways are higher than our ways. 

Remember that Jesus loves YOU!