COMMITMENT VS SURRENDER

There is a difference between being "committed" and being "surrendered." Commitment involves the strengthening of the human will and the increased determination of self-effort. It means doubling down and trying harder. In other words, it is all about what you can handle and what you can endure.

Surrender is actually the opposite of commitment. Surrender means giving up. Instead of trying harder, it means waving the white flag.

God is not looking for increased effort and determination. He isn't looking for your commitment if the source of that commitment is in your own strong will. He gives you things you can't handle so that you will let Him handle them through you, from the inside out. Self-effort is from the outside in. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is deep within our spirit. It can only be released through brokenness.

God goes to work on behalf of the humble. He shines through brokenness. He occupies emptiness. He takes over only when we surrender.

If you are at the end of your rope, at the end of your resources, or at the end of your strength, that is exactly the place where God has placed you. "When you are weak, then He is strong."

When God closes you in on all sides, it is to keep you from looking horizontally for answers and start looking up. We cannot become full of Him until we become empty of ourselves. Some of us have more fight in us than others. We think that is something to be proud of. God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble (James 4:6). We can't. He can.