Surrender! Really?
I have been laboring under a wrong assumption. Many of our praise and worship songs speak of surrendering to God in some way or another. One of Billy Graham's favorite hymns is "I Surrender All." My false assumption is that this surrender was a one time event. Imagine how bad I have felt over the years. If I truly surrendered such and such an area in my life I would no longer have to struggle there. Obviously I did not surrender it totally to God! Guess what?! That is not biblical. Read Romans 7 if you think I am wrong. If surrender was a one time event, we would all be on Easy Street. The fact is we are fallen and while we do have a born again spirit (that is those of us who profess Jesus Christ), our bodies are not. Our flesh and sin nature wins battles. And that is the crux or point of this point. The war is won! But there are many battles to be fought. If you are like me and enjoy history, you will know that the American Civil War is an excellent model.