We raise our white flag
We surrender
All to You
All for You
We raise our white flag
The war is over
Love has come
Your love has won
Here on this Holy ground
You made a way for peace
Laying your body down
You took our rightful place
This freedom song is marching on
(lyrics by Chris Tomlin)
At the end of last year, I felt like God was
wanting us to settle quickly with our adversary that was suing us but
I wanted to fight. I knew that we did not do anything to this person. I started
thinking that it did not make sense to settle and I must have misunderstood
what God was saying to me. The following
months, I worked tirelessly by going through documentation and transcripts
trying to prove our innocence but no one would listen. I was in shock that
the lies were believed so easily even though there were many contradictions.
Chris kept saying that he believed that God would defend him and for me to stop
spending so much time working on it. I did
believe that God was going to defend him but I just thought He would use me
to do it. In the end, all my hard work
and time spent trying to defend us did not pay off. It was like I was invisible and things kept
moving forward. Instead of responding to
the contradictions, they were ignored and met with demands. Even though I felt defeated, I wanted to
fight to the end, no matter what the cost but there was one problem. I felt like God was wanting me
to surrender it ALL to Him.
A few days later, I went to listen to Beth Moore speak at a
church in Atlanta. Before she spoke, they read about the crucifixion of Jesus
from Scripture. While they were reading God’s Word, I felt like God was saying
to me again to settle quickly with our adversary. I started to cry
and told Him, "But we did not do anything wrong. Why should we have to pay
for something we did not do?” Suddenly, as they were still reading from
Scripture, I realized that Jesus paid for something He did not do….MY sin. “You will give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from THEIR
sins,”….“But who among the people realized that He was dying for THEIR
sins---that He was suffering THEIR punishment? He had done no wrong….”....“For
God made CHRIST, who never sinned, to be the offering for OUR sin, so that we
could be made right with God THROUGH CHRIST,”
(Matthew 1:21, Isaiah 53:8b, II Corinthians 5:21 NLT). At that moment, I
became overwhelmed at what Jesus did for me.
How He humbled Himself, surrendered His will and became obedient to
death, death on the cross…for me (Philippians 2:8). I
cried even harder because I realized that God wanted me to stop fighting, to
trust Him and surrender my will to Him.
I also realized how Peter felt when the
soldiers came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He wanted to fight to
defend Jesus and even cut off the servant's ear of the high priest with his
sword trying to do so. After Jesus healed the servant's ear, He told Peter,
"Put your sword back in its place.....Do you not think I cannot call on My
Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of
angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen
in this way?" When Peter realized
that Jesus was willfully surrendering, he fled in fear with the others and
would later deny Jesus three times. I began to realize that Peter was ready
to fight to the end in His name but he was not ready to surrender and suffer
in His name.
Jesus had tried to tell His disciples earlier what
would happen but they did not comprehend it nor wanted to accept it because it
did not make sense. "He then began
to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by
the elders, chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be
killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter
took Him aside and began to rebuke Him,” (Mark 8:31-33 NIV). When I read that I thought, how could Peter
be so bold to take Jesus aside and rebuke Him.
Are you kidding me? Then I realized how many times I have done the same
thing when things did not turn out the way I thought they should. “God, why did
you allow this to happen? Why did you not answer my prayer the way I wanted you
to? How could this plan bring You glory?”
But just like Jesus told Peter, He is telling me, “You are seeing things
merely from a human point of view, not from God’s,“ (Mark 8:33 NLT). God sees the finished masterpiece, His work in us, but we
only can see what we are facing right at that moment. We have to trust His heart when we don’t
always understand His hand…..even when His plans don’t make sense to
us…..especially when they don’t make sense to us. “For my
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). God wants us to surrender our will to Him but
surrendering OUR will to Him can be so painful.
We want to give him bits and pieces but He wants it all. He wants all of us in order to show His power
through us when we are weak.
I remember
one night I could not sleep again because of
fear of the future. Then
I just fell on my knees and wept…not cried….wept. It was difficult laying it down but once I
did, there was peace, His peace.
Surprisingly, there was also great strength because it was His strength. Sometimes, I think we forget what Jesus did
for us and we how difficult is was. Just
moments before Jesus was arrested, He was praying, “Father, if you are willing,
please take this cup of suffering away from Me.
Yet I want Your will, not Mine.”
Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened Him. He prayed more fervently, and He was in such
agony of spirit that His sweat fell to the ground like great drops of
blood. At last, HE STOOD UP…..” Luke 22:42-45a NLT. When He stood up, He was standing in our place, for our sins.
Moments later, "The chief priests and the
whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put
Him to death, but they did not find any. Many testified falsely against Him,
but their statements did not agree" Mark 14:56. The high priest asked Jesus if He was going
to answer against the charges but He remained silent and gave no answer. I was AMAZED that Jesus remained silent every
time a lie was spoken about Him. Even
Pilate, the governor, was astonished that Jesus did not defend Himself even to
a single charge. Jesus only responded to
TRUTH because that is who He is. “I am
the Way, and the TRUTH and the Life. NO
ONE comes to the Father EXCEPT THROUGH
ME,” (John 14:6). Later, the high priest
said to Jesus, “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus, the Truth, would then respond, “Yes, it is as you
say,” (Matt 26:63-64). Pilate also said
to Him, “You are a king, then!” Jesus
answered, “You are right in saying I am a King.
In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the TRUTH. Everyone on the
side of TRUTH listens to me.” What many
did not realize at the time, including His disciples, was that His kingdom was
not of this world (John 18:36).
I began to realize that Jesus
did not have to declare His innocence because God, His Defender, declared His
innocence through those around Him.
Judas, who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, returned the
money and declared to the chief priests and the elders, “I have betrayed
INNOCENT blood,” (Matt 27:2). Pilate’s
own wife told him, “Don’t have anything to do with that INNOCENT man, for I have
suffered a great deal today in a dream because of Him,” (Matt 27:19). But in the end, in order to satisfy the
people who wanted Jesus crucified, Pilate, who found no basis for the charges
against Jesus, declared his own innocence instead of the innocence of Jesus, “I
AM INNOCENT of this man’s blood. It is
your responsibility.” Instead of surrendering to Jesus, Pilate surrendered to the
will of the people who shouted their demands to crucify Him. With that, Jesus, the Lamb of
God, was led like a lamb to the
slaughter. He was “pierced for OUR
transgressions, He was crushed for OUR iniquities; the punishment that brought
us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed," (Isaiah 53:5,7).
At the very end of his life on the cross,
Jesus, the Word of God, had the last word and declared, “It is finished!” The disciples thought that meant they were
finished and, for the next few days, lived in fear behind locked doors. They had lost all hope. What they were
about to find out was that the Hope of Glory was about to be found….not among the
dead but the living….for He had risen from the dead conquering sin, death, and
the enemy (Col 2:15). He had settled the
matter once and for all and God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him
the name that is above EVERY NAME. Salvation
is found in NO ONE else, for there is NO OTHER NAME under heaven given to men
by which we must be saved (Philippians 2:9, Acts 4:12).
Once I surrender everything to God, He also settled the matter in our situation. He took what the enemy used to crush us and gave me this opportunity to tell of the greatness of Jesus Christ. We might have lost the battle in the world's eyes but I was able to tell who won the ultimate War---JESUS CHRIST!!! Whatever you are facing today, SURRENDER it ALL to Him. Know that it is His incomparably great power, the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead, that will be at work in you and through your situation (Ephesians 1:19-20). More importantly, SURRENDER your life to Him. Thank Him for dying for your sins and taking your place. Praise God with all of your heart that HE IS RISEN! "For if you confess with your mouth that 'Jesus is Lord' and believe in your heart that God
raised Him from the dead, you will be saved," Romans 10:9.
