Recently, while watching a video of a church service held in South
America, I noticed something I had never seen before in church. As the pastor
passionately called his flock to yield their lives to Jesus, one of the
parishioners took a white hankie out of his pocket and started waving it in the
air. Then another, and another. With tears running down their cheeks, they were
expressing full surrender to Christ.
But I wonder if there was more to the moment than the flags of
surrender. I think they were waving flags of love to God. When God told His
people to “love the Lord your God” (Deut. 6:5), it was in the context of His
urging them to surrender their lives to Him.
From God’s point of view, life with Him is far more than just trying to
be good. It is always about relationship—relationship in which surrender is the
way we express our grateful love to Him. Jesus, in amazing love for us,
surrendered Himself on the cross to rescue us from our helpless bondage to sin
and set us on a journey to all that is good and glorious.
We don’t have enough words to tell God how much we love Him! So, let’s
show Him our love by surrendering our hearts and lives to follow Him.
Surrender is God’s love language. (RBC)
