Full Surrender

Although you might not remember his name, you have probably heard the story of Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who did not surrender in World War II until thirty years after the war was over. He hid in the jungle on Lubang Island in the Philippines, acting on his last orders to defend the island against the enemy. No matter how many people tried to tell him that the war was over during those thirty years, he would not believe it.
His training as a Japanese officer taught him to distrust any news that could be enemy propaganda. In his memoir, he said he and his comrade “had developed so many fixed ideas that we were unable to understand anything that did not conform to them.” His distrustful mind rejected every piece of news that told him the war was over. Onoda was finally willing to surrender only when his commanding officer agreed to go to Lubang and command him to lay down his weapon and come home.

What a picture of our relationship with God! We live in a world ravaged by the spiritual war resulting from our rebellion against God. The brokenness that results from our sin creates fixed ideas through which we interpret the message God has been trying to send through the prophets and apostles. They tell us that in Jesus Christ, the war is over. We can lay down our weapons and come home.
But we don’t listen. We keep up our defenses against God while we try to navigate the jungle alone, in fear and self-reliance. Hebrews 2:15 says our fear of death enslaves us. In our sin, we are afraid of God as an enemy combatant, so we hide in fear.

I would like to think that I have surrendered to God. I heard the gospel as a child and asked Jesus to save me from my sins and give me eternal life. But my childlike faith has been challenged over the years through betrayal, mistreatment, misguided teachers, and my own sins. As a result, I developed many fixed ideas that God saved me because He was legally obligated to if I trusted in Christ. But the message that He loves me just as I am and I don’t need to earn His favor was a notion I could not accept for over thirty years.

I have also become more aware of places in my life in which I am powerless and make my life unmanageable. And I fear. And I hide from God. I hack my own way through the jungle of my besetting sin, my fear, my bad choices, my distractions, and my distrust. I have a fixed idea that once I have fixed all my problems, I will have confidence to draw near to God. But that never seems to happen. Because there are some problems I cannot fix.

A few days ago, I woke up at 3 a.m. with one of those problems-I-can’t-fix on my mind. I begged God to help me sleep and He wouldn’t. And somewhere in the early morning hours of wrestling with Him, I knew I had to surrender in a new way. I was angry. I prayed, “haven’t I surrendered enough? Aren’t you getting nit-picky? What do you want from me?” And He said, “Your whole self.” And that was it. My Lord had spoken, and it was time to lay down my weapons and come home.

The writer to the Hebrews says God is speaking to us today through Jesus. He repeats three times, “today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts (3:7,8, 15; 4:7).” Lay down your weapons, your defensiveness, your distrust.
If you listen, what will you hear Him say? “I am your high priest in heaven, and I sympathize with your weaknesses. I have been tempted in every way you are, yet without sin. So then, draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, that you may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).”

Like Onoda, many of us live as if the war between us and God is still raging. We stay hidden, guarded by fear, shame, or a sense of duty, refusing to believe the peace that’s already been declared.
But Jesus has made peace with God in heaven; the war is over (see 2 Corinthians 5:19 and Colossians 1:19–20).
He is commanding you to go to God with confidence. Your fear fights against Him with fixed ideas that you must defend or justify yourself. But Jesus is saying, “I will go with you to the throne named ‘grace,’ and God will give you mercy to help you. Don’t go after you have tried to fix your problems. Go with your problems. Bring your whole self, your weakness and sin, and draw near to Him with confidence. Your Father has something to say. He will speak mercy, grace, peace, and love. Listen. Surrender.”