You're Only as Strong as Your Readiness to Surrender
The question isn't whether you will arrive at the end of your rope but rather, “What will you do when you get there?”
The Mustard Seed is devoted to helping folks experience the fullness of God’s grace in Jesus.
Pressing Rewind
In his lecture, The Beauty of What We’ll Never Know, Pico Iyler said something that made me pause. Did he say what I think he said? I had to rewind the video to make sure.
My ears had not deceived me. Without flinching, Iyler presented the statement with purpose and poise, “You are only as strong as your readiness to surrender.”
Surrender? Was he saying that giving up is a virtue? What about tenacity and resilience?
Certainly, these qualities have their place, and I am not advocating laziness or abdicating responsibility. However, the more I reflected upon his statement, I realized how effectively those words crack open the surface to a deep reservoir of divine wisdom.
The question isn't whether we will come to the end of our rope but rather, “What will do when we get there?”
It may be that, in many cases, the better option to hanging on is letting go. The apostle Paul learned this lesson.
In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, he writes,
To keep me from becoming conceded because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why I, for Christ's sake, delight in weaknesses, and insults, and hardships, in persecutions, and difficulties. Or when I am weak, then I am strong.
Even though Paul does not use the word surrender, you can almost see Jesus presenting him with a white flag—as a gift.
The White Flag
One word stands out in Pico Iyler’s quote that I find particularly helpful.
Readiness.
He doesn't say to give up at the drop of a hat.
Again, faith is often displayed in tenacity and resilience — a refusal to give up but to press on in whatever hard obedience lies before us.
But I must always be prepared to pull out the white flag.
There is a time when I must stop doing. I must quit trying to control my circumstances. I must cease my tight-gripped attempt to steer providence. I must let go and give up.
I must surrender.
The white flag is a gift because it helps us find grace where grace may only be found, which is at the end of ourselves.
This is what happens when someone receives Jesus as Savior and Lord. They wave the flag of surrender, giving up the attempt to save themselves by fully resting in the saving grace of God in Jesus as the propitiation for their sins.
Enabling Grace
Grace has many facets. There is predestinating grace, regenerating grace, justifying grace, adopting grace, and even glorifying grace.
A sometimes-overlooked facet is God’s enabling grace for the present.
Enabling grace shows up when the white flag is unfurled. This kind of divine intervention brings the strength I need, not despite “insults, and hardships, in persecutions, and difficulties,” but because of them.
God even used the afflictions of Satan in Paul’s life to take the apostle to a place where he would discover greater grace and, thus, greater strength for the real battle.
The real battle is not the outcome of our present circumstances but whether we will live by faith through them, trusting our Abba as sovereign, strong, wise, loving, and good.
Jesus demonstrated this trust to the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the night before his crucifixion. When pressed to the end of his rope, experiencing an intensity of stress that burst the capillaries on his temples, he waved the flag in prayer, “Not my will but yours be done.”
At that moment, Jesus received the strength to press on—all the way to the cross.
When I wave the white flag, I no longer look inward for strength but upward.
Living faith is activated, and I begin to experience the sufficient grace Jesus promised us through Paul’s experience with thorns in the flesh. What those thorns were, we are not certain. The pain was real at the end of his rope, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual.
It was there he found the grace he needed to press on.
The same is true for us.
Counterintuitive Grace
I realize a readiness to surrender is counterintuitive to human nature and a culture that prizes effort and success.
But isn't the entire Christian life counterintuitive?
To be first, we were told to be last.
To be great, we are instructed to become servants.
To live, we are called to die. To become mature, we must become like children.
And to be strong, we must be weak.
As Pico Iyler said, “You are only as strong as your readiness to surrender.”
There will be times when the most faithful and trusting thing we can do is wave the white flag before the Lord.
Do you need to wave that flag today? Is there a specific issue where you need to stop and surrender? Whatever it is, know that Jesus’ promise to Paul is also for you, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."
The Mustard Seed is devoted to helping folks experience the fullness of God’s grace in Jesus.
If you teach or preach, feel free to check out my complete preaching system here or visit mckaycaston.com for more resources to help you experience the fullness of God’s grace in Jesus.
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