Surrendering All

“You have all my heart.  All that is broken.  I surrender all.  My life into Your hands.  You have all my love.  All that I’m holding.  I surrender all. My life into your hands.”  These lyrics from Matt Maher’s song “Into Your Hands” have been really speaking to me recently.  We so often think we are in control of our lives.  What if we fully surrendered our lives into Jesus’ hands?

​We like to think we can plan out everything in our lives.  We can make decisions on our own and choose what we want to happen.  The idea we have that we’re in control is all just an illusion.  It has always been and will always be God who holds the control of our lives.  He knows what He’s doing, even when we think our ideas are better.

We often spend time stressing about the daily occurrences in our lives.  Everything needs to happen a certain way, or else the world feels as if it is ending.  We try to do everything on our own and in our own ways.  People often grasp tightly onto the things in their lives that are perfect, or maybe what they perceive to be perfect.  As long as we hold onto these things very tightly, we will not lose them because we’re in control, right?  Maybe it’s that perfect job. Maybe it’s a relationship or our health.  It might be as simple as your daily routine.  What happens when these things change or are taken away?  We will be left lost and searching.

There is uncertainty in life.  It is hard for most of us to face the uncertainties.  We want to know where we’re going, what we're doing, and when it will happen.  We cannot obsess over different situations or let ourselves be consumed by fear of the unknown.  We think we know what is best for ourselves and we wander around holding onto all the things that we think we have control of.  We need to open our hands and let go of everything we are so tightly clenching.  We need to hand it all over to Jesus.

Sometimes it seems as if we put Jesus in a corner, a corner of our lives.  We give Him certain parts of our lives and leave Him out of the other parts.  “He can be in this part, but not the others,” we tell ourselves, almost as if we are putting Him inside of a box.  We sometimes try to separate our faith life from every other part of our lives.  The problem with this is Jesus cannot just be a part of our lives.  He needs to be our whole life.  Through the joys and sorrows, tears, and laughter, good times and suffering, we need to give it all to Jesus.

Jesus wants our whole hearts and our whole lives.  He knows what we need and what is good for us.  What if we stopped trying to figure everything out on our own and just let Him guide us through each day?  Life is not always easy.  We will often be uncomfortable, but Jesus will never abandon us.  My prayer for today is that we would surrender all our lives and all that we’re holding into His hands.