Through years of failed change attempts, the road of self-effort and control has not taken most of us where we wanted to go. Proverbs 14:12 tells us, “Before every man there lies a wide and pleasant road that seems right but ends in death” (TLB). To stay on this road is to choose further heartache and destruction. Consequently, we must be willing to admit that our lives have spun out of control. Self-control and our forms of self-treatment have failed us and must be abandoned.

Although we are limited by our weaknesses, God is not. By acknowledging that He alone has the power to change the course of our lives, we surrender to Him our powerlessness and begin the process of spiritual renewal. Only when we relinquish our control to God does He release His supernatural power in our lives, and it is only through His power that we can be “transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2).

Every limitation we have can be seen as an invitation from God to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. When we surrender, we don’t just give up or play dead or wait for God to fix us. Instead, we become active participants with God in making a new path of hope toward healing. We drop our guard and give up our solitary and isolated efforts to heal. We sincerely and humbly reach out to others who can help us restore our lives to spiritual vitality.

Surrender is not passivity, nor is it resignation. Its motion requires an active and conscious turning towards God though others, reflecting our willingness to submit to His power and share our truth with others.

Surrender means:

• humbling ourselves before the God of the universe
• admitting that God is all powerful and releasing our struggles to Him
• refusing to escape into the old patterns, habits, and attitudes that continue to distract us and add to the destruction of our lives
• no longer saying, “I can handle this myself.”
• submitting to God’s way of doing things even when we don’t understand
• getting past our pain and fear and clinging to our hope in God and His love for us
• setting aside our human understanding and becoming childlike, and acknowledging we have no answers that work

Surrender allows you to grow as you submit to God’s authority. In order to submit, you must trust that God has good things for you and that His plans and purposes far outweigh what you bring to the table.

Thus, a necessary step to make real change is to acknowledge your incredible need for God to take the reigns. If you don’t do this, you are doomed to continue to try every new scheme that offers you false hope and false security. But if you can grasp this surrender concept and implement it, you can be free from your addictions/obsessions and find a new life you never dreamed could be so great. But understand, before you can have that life, you must surrender the one you have.