Dean Kelly wrote about five levels of surrender,

• Giving money is the lowest level of surrender.

• Next is the surrender of time.

• Then comes the surrender of our power and skills, our service.

• After that, the surrender of all our fears and hopes, which includes everything mentioned before.

• The surrender of our whole being, which means completely surrendering our will and life to Jesus.

  (Dean M. Kelley, “How Adventism Can Stop Growing,” Ministry, February 1983, p.4)

The last point describes real surrender.

It’s wonderful when we surrender ourselves to our heavenly Father, because we trust in His love and do not let things go so far as the prodigal son did in Jesus’ parable. He capitulated when he hit rock bottom in his life, and only then did he decide to go back home. As he came close to his parents’ house, his father came to meet him and wrapped his arms around him. He fully accepted him as his son. Only then did the son clearly comprehend his father’s love. This turned his capitulation into a surrender of love.

A tragic incident

The following incident occurred in France and helps illustrate this.

The wife of a rich Frenchman confided a secret to someone. She was carrying a small bottle of poison in her hand. She was planning to take her life because of difficulties in her marriage. She said, “Just yesterday I complained to my husband, but he answered in surprise and bewilderment: ‘What more do you want? You have my checkbook [meaning that she had his money at her disposal], you own my house, you eat at my table. Everything that prosperity and rank can offer you belongs to you, and yet you complain?’ I told him,” the woman continued, “‘I want your heart, I want you to love me.’ And he exclaimed, ‘You can’t have that. You know that my heart belongs to another woman. Everything I own is yours, but my heart, my love, it is impossible for you to demand that from me.’” Oswald Smith, The Man God Uses (New York: The Christian Alliance Publishing Company, 1925), p.26

No one who loves someone would be happy with such an answer. The woman didn’t care how much her husband owned. What did matter to her was him as a person.

“Our great Lord does not want something from me. He wants me. Jesus doesn’t want part of my time or part of my assets, nor of my talents or abilities.” Johannes Mager, Unser größtes Bedürfnis (Our Greatest Need) (Lüneburg, Werner E. Lange, 2011), S.48

He wants me, because He loves me and wants to make me happy.

We ought to surrender ourselves; we ought to hand over our self with everything we have and everything we are. We ought to surrender ourselves to the care, leadership, direction, and will of God. This is our reasonable service that Romans 12:1 calls us to.

When the Word of God says about complete surrender, “[This] is your rea- sonable service,” then it can only mean that surrender to God is the most rea- sonable thing we can do. What is more reasonable than to put our case into the hands of a skillful physician when we are sick? What is more reasonable than to entrust ourselves to an experienced guide when we are lost?

Complete surrender is not a loss, but rather a huge asset. Compared with God, I am poor, foolish, and helpless. Wouldn’t it be sensible to place myself in God’s hands? I should trust the One who created me, who wanted me to be, who loves me and can care for all my needs. Through our surrender, God’s infinite love and power are on our side. This is entering a life led by God.

Our complete surrender is the beginning of a more abundant life (John 10:10) that Jesus wants to give us. And this surrender also brings victory over evil, as Revelation 12:11 affirms: “And they overcame him [1] by the blood of the Lamb and [2] by the word of their testimony, and [3] they did not love their lives to death.” This shows that complete surrender is necessary to overcome sin and Satan, and that this is the best thing we can do.

In Christ’s Object Lessons, we read the following:

“Let no one say, I cannot remedy my defects of character. If you come to this decision, you will certainly fail of obtaining everlasting life. The impossibility lies in your own will. If you will not, then you cannot overcome. The real difficulty arises from the corruption of an unsanctified heart, and an unwillingness to submit to the control of God.” Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p.331

“To Jesus, who emptied Himself for the salvation of lost humanity, the Holy Spirit was given without measure. So it will be given to every follower of Christ when the whole heart is surrendered for His indwelling.” Ellen G. White, Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing (Nampa, ID: Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1999), p.20

TO THINK AND MEDITATE THROUGH THE DAY

• The Holy Spirit lived in Jesus without measure.

• He desires for us to live in complete surrender so that the Holy Spirit can live in us to the same extent.

• For this reason, Jesus gave the command, “Be filled with the Spirit.” In the original Greek text, this means, “Let yourself be continually and repeatedly filled with the Holy Spirit” (see Ephesians 5:18).

• His object is that we will have life more abundantly (see John 10:10; Colossians 2:10).