There’s an old hymn from the 1890s titled “I Surrender All”.

It is a beautiful song and one of my favorites.

Part of the chorus says, “All to Thee, My Blessed Savior, I surrender all.”

 

I heard and sang that song for years without really understanding what it meant.

I knew what surrender was.

I knew I was committed to Jesus and to living a life that pleased Him.

But, deep down, I was still hanging onto things.

Things I hadn’t given Him yet.

Things I didn’t want to give Him.

Things I didn’t realize I needed to give Him.

 

Then I heard the words no one ever wants to hear, “You have cancer,”

Believe me when I say that will make you think about things you never thought about.

It will also make you look at a lot of things a lot differently.

 

It was like a light bulb went off in my head and I realized there were things I was holding on to that I didn’t know were there.

Unforgiveness. Frustration. Disappointment.

 

The only thing I could do about any of it was to give it to Christ.

Not in some, “Hey this is bothering me” way.

In a deep, honest, get it all out into the open kind of way.

Complete honesty and deep reflection.

Admitting my part in it.

 

It wasn’t easy.

I ugly-cried for days.

I cried over the realization life was not going to go the way I wanted it to.

I cried over the pain of past traumas.

I cried over the pain of my son’s addiction and how it was destroying his life.

 

Then I did the only thing I could do.

I said, “Here Jesus, you take this. I can’t fix it. I don’t know what to do with it. I’m tired of carrying it. I give it to you.”

One by one, I gave Him every single thing that came to mind – every situation, every disappointment, every frustration, every heartache.

Big things. Little things. Everything.

 

Immediately, a miraculous thing happened.

I felt lighter.

I felt more complete.

I felt more peace, both with Jesus and with myself.

 

I also clearly saw that I had been carrying all that pain unnecessarily,

I had thought I’d let it all go.

I hadn’t.

Instead, I had just accepted it happened and moved on.

That’s not letting go.

That’s denial.

 

Jesus doesn’t want us to deny our pain or our past.

He wants us to give it to Him so He can heal us of it.

We can only do that if we are willing to go to Him in full honesty about ourselves and our situation.

We have to be willing to invite Him in and then to show Him all the things we are struggling with.

We have to be willing to take accountability and responsibility for our part in it.

 

I wish I could say the things we surrender just magically disappear and are never seen or heard from again but that’s not the case.

Sometimes the bad habits and bad memories try to come back.

When that happens, we have to pray and give them to Him again – as many times as it takes for our minds to realize what our hearts and souls know – we have surrendered that to Jesus, it’s no longer ours;; it’s His now.

 

I still have things I have to surrender to Him from time to time.

Habits, attitudes, painful memories, current situations.

No matter what it is, every time I surrender it to Jesus, He takes it from me and replaces it with peace.

His peace. A peace that passes all understanding.

 

I know I will always have things to surrender to Him, that’s part of being human and living in a broken world, but I also know that Jesus is for me, working with me as I seek to let them go and to give them to Him.

As long as I keep honestly surrendering them to Him, He will keep healing me and giving me peace.

What a beautiful life full of peace that creates!

 

“I surrender all…”

 

What about you? Are there things you need to trust Jesus with?

Will you surrender them to Him today?

 

 

Want to hear the hymn? Find it on YouTube here – “I Surrender All”

 

Surrender – To yield or give up something and to give it to God, recognizing Him as a higher authority, releasing control and ownership over it, and allowing Him to completely have, control, and own it in every way.

 

Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken. Psalm 55:22 (NIV)

 

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28 (NIV)