What Does It Mean to Surrender Your Will to God?
Almost everyone who takes faith seriously ends up asking the same question at some point: what does God actually want me to do with my life? It usually shows up at a crossroads, when a job offer, a move, a relationship, or some decision we can't undo is sitting right in front of us and we'd give almost anything for a clear answer. We pray, we wait, we ask the people we trust, and when nothing seems to come through, it's easy to assume God has gone quiet. But what if the problem isn't on His end?
During the final week of our Fully His series, Pastor Evan used an image a lot of us grew up with. If your car radio is tuned to an AM station, there's no use getting frustrated that the FM station isn't coming through. That FM signal is broadcasting the whole time; you're just on the wrong band. In the same way, God hasn't stopped speaking. Very often we simply aren't tuned to receive, because our own will still has its hand on the dial.
Isaiah 1:19 says, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." The order matters. Obedience is something we can carry out with our hands while our heart is somewhere else entirely, the way a kid can clean their room while stomping around and slamming the door. Willingness goes deeper than that, because it comes from the heart, and the heart is exactly what the Lord looks at (1 Samuel 16:7). We might fool a boss with a polite smile, but we can't fool Him.
That's why so many of us struggle to find God's will. We want to see steps one through fifty before we agree to take step one, and we'd like to keep veto power over anything we don't care for. Being willing means saying yes before we know what He'll ask. That isn't recklessness; it's trust in the One doing the asking, the kind Proverbs 3:5-6 describes when it tells us to trust the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. When we trust Him with the first step, He is faithful to show us the next one, and the one after that. As Pastor Evan put it, a willing heart makes a hearing ear.
Jesus showed us what this looks like. Again and again He said He came not to do His own will but the will of the Father who sent Him (John 6:38). In the garden of Gethsemane, with the cross in front of Him, He prayed, "Not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42), and the struggle was so intense that His sweat fell like great drops of blood. Submission wasn't easy for Jesus, and it won't always be easy for us either. Submitting is simple when we agree with where we're being led; it becomes real submission when we don't.
What makes all of this so beautiful is that God never forces any of it. Revelation 3:20 pictures Jesus standing at the door and knocking. He holds all the power in the universe and could knock that door flat, but He doesn't, because love doesn't control. He knocks and waits for us to open it. That knock often sounds familiar, too. It's the thing you heard on Sunday that came up again in a song on the drive home and then again in a conversation at work. Some of us have been hearing the same knock for years, and His patience still hasn't run out. And once we finally open the door, we've done our part, the ball is in His court, and that's exactly where we want it.
So try this every morning this week. Before you pick up your phone, pray the simple sentence Pastor Evan gave us: "Lord, I will to do Your will." Then ask Him one honest question, "What have You been knocking on?", and trust that most of us already know the answer the moment we ask. Write it down, and before the week is over, take the first step on it all the way and right away, without waiting to see the whole staircase. You may be surprised how much clearer His voice becomes once your heart is tuned to the willing band.
During the final week of our Fully His series, Pastor Evan used an image a lot of us grew up with. If your car radio is tuned to an AM station, there's no use getting frustrated that the FM station isn't coming through. That FM signal is broadcasting the whole time; you're just on the wrong band. In the same way, God hasn't stopped speaking. Very often we simply aren't tuned to receive, because our own will still has its hand on the dial.
Isaiah 1:19 says, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land." The order matters. Obedience is something we can carry out with our hands while our heart is somewhere else entirely, the way a kid can clean their room while stomping around and slamming the door. Willingness goes deeper than that, because it comes from the heart, and the heart is exactly what the Lord looks at (1 Samuel 16:7). We might fool a boss with a polite smile, but we can't fool Him.
That's why so many of us struggle to find God's will. We want to see steps one through fifty before we agree to take step one, and we'd like to keep veto power over anything we don't care for. Being willing means saying yes before we know what He'll ask. That isn't recklessness; it's trust in the One doing the asking, the kind Proverbs 3:5-6 describes when it tells us to trust the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our own understanding. When we trust Him with the first step, He is faithful to show us the next one, and the one after that. As Pastor Evan put it, a willing heart makes a hearing ear.
Jesus showed us what this looks like. Again and again He said He came not to do His own will but the will of the Father who sent Him (John 6:38). In the garden of Gethsemane, with the cross in front of Him, He prayed, "Not My will, but Yours, be done" (Luke 22:42), and the struggle was so intense that His sweat fell like great drops of blood. Submission wasn't easy for Jesus, and it won't always be easy for us either. Submitting is simple when we agree with where we're being led; it becomes real submission when we don't.
What makes all of this so beautiful is that God never forces any of it. Revelation 3:20 pictures Jesus standing at the door and knocking. He holds all the power in the universe and could knock that door flat, but He doesn't, because love doesn't control. He knocks and waits for us to open it. That knock often sounds familiar, too. It's the thing you heard on Sunday that came up again in a song on the drive home and then again in a conversation at work. Some of us have been hearing the same knock for years, and His patience still hasn't run out. And once we finally open the door, we've done our part, the ball is in His court, and that's exactly where we want it.
So try this every morning this week. Before you pick up your phone, pray the simple sentence Pastor Evan gave us: "Lord, I will to do Your will." Then ask Him one honest question, "What have You been knocking on?", and trust that most of us already know the answer the moment we ask. Write it down, and before the week is over, take the first step on it all the way and right away, without waiting to see the whole staircase. You may be surprised how much clearer His voice becomes once your heart is tuned to the willing band.