My Story (Part 4): The Place of Surrender

Over the years of my walk with the Lord, I have many times sensed Him speaking to my spirit that there is a “place” He wanted me to find. I knew it was something I needed to seek for and I knew it was important. But it always seemed so elusive.

Another thought the Lord impressed upon me many times is from Jeremiah 29:13-14: “I will be found by you when you search for Me with your whole heart.” God loves us and wants relationship with us, and He wants us to have an all-consuming desire for relationship with Him. He wants our desire to be so strong that we lay aside other things in our lives and make seeking Him our first priority.

For some time now, I have been seeking God’s face and endeavoring to draw closer to Him. I came to a point where I found myself daily saying to Him that I was placing myself on the altar as a living sacrifice, that I wanted to be holy and acceptable to Him. My fervent desire is to be in His will and to be an instrument for Him to use for His glory!

Recently while again submitting my life to God in prayer, I heard in my spirit a wonderful, unexpected message: “This is the place. This is the place I want you to be. With Me. Surrendered. Come to Me every day. And when you leave this place, stay on My altar.”

Each day when I leave my prayer closet—the place I meet with Him—He wants me to spiritually remain on the altar, completely surrendered to Him. 

I believe this is hard for most of us. We can have a wonderful time with the Lord in our morning prayers, and then get so involved with activities of life during our busy days that we lose sight of the fact that He is still with us—and we are still with Him. 

My understanding is that He wants me to be continually aware of His constant presence. This is something I believe we already know, but we need to keep our mind focused on so that our relationship with Him becomes more real to us.

I believe I made finding the “place” so difficult, when really it is simple—and yet profound in its implications for our lives. Being surrendered to the will of God is the place He wants us to be because in that place we receive His blessings. And from our fellowship with God in that place we can learn to live as He has called us to live and become testimonies to the world of His grace and mercy. 

Surrendering to God does not sit well with our flesh. Saying, “I surrender all. Not my will, but Yours be done,” is easy enough. It’s living it out that is difficult, because our flesh tends to want its own way. 

God requires submission—being willing to give up what I want in order to obey Him.

To live the kind of life God has called us to live, so that we can complete the work He has given us to do, we have to be willing to lay down our will and our desires and take up His. 

Lord, please help us to stay in the place of surrender on Your altar. We want to be with You and totally surrendered to Your will!

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“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you…” —Jeremiah 29:13-14 (NIV)

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. —Romans 12:1-2 (NKJV)

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. —Matthew 6:6 (KJV)