The Reality of Surrender and Trusting in God

Surrender is a tricky thing. We must learn it again and again and again for our entire lives. The same goes for trust. Trust is the source of surrender. If you are confident in God and His promises, then you know that all will be well and because of that you will have the courage to surrender. Surrender is particularly difficult when you cannot see a way forward no matter how much you think about a situation. It’s in these moments especially that God is calling on us to trust Him. God always wants us to surrender to Him but oftentimes we forget this, and in His providence, He allows us to end up in tough situations to remind us of the need to surrender to Him. Now, what exactly is surrender?

              Google says, “cease resistance to an enemy or opponent and submit to their authority”. This is probably what comes to mind first when asked what surrender is. It’s also likely that the phrase “give up” will be part of someone’s definition. Compare that to what was revealed by Jesus in the Surrender Novena to Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo, “Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in My care, so that only I act, saying, “You take care of it”.” In short, pray, hope, and don’t worry. Jesus isn’t telling us to give up, He’s asking us to let go of our own efforts so that He can work in our lives. This is an extremely hard lesson for everybody. But if you do somehow find it easy to surrender, send me an email and tell me how.

              God has been insistently encouraging me to surrender to Him these past few weeks. My life has been rather chaotic. Contractors have been in and out of the house replacing all the windows, dust is everywhere, there’s very little that is in its usual spot, I’ve been looking deep internally trying to find the wounds at my core, and on top of all that, I’ve been dealing with a breakup. The construction work isn’t that big of a deal as it will be done soon, but the other two are taxing. And let me tell you, my first instinct is not to turn my mind away from my troubles. I’m a problem-solver, so I like finding solutions and trying to fix the issue. The problem is that the more I look at it and try to find a solution, the more I see that there is nothing that I can do. These are the moments when we are called to turn our minds away from tribulations. When it’s something that affects us deeply, it is intensely difficult to turn your mind away. We must pray, asking God for a resolution. We must have faith that the Lord has heard and will answer our prayers. And, the hardest part, we must turn our minds away from our troubles and say, “Jesus, You take care of it.”

              In the Surrender Novena Jesus promises, “I say to you in truth that every act of true, blind, complete surrender to me produces the effect that you desire and resolves all difficult situations.” Take heart in His promise and believe with all your soul that Jesus will take care of it. Practice surrender at all times, especially in times of great distress and turmoil. Remember the words of our Lord, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Pray and ask, pray and seek, pray and knock, pray and give it to Jesus. Bring whatever is on your heart to Him and say, “Jesus, you take care of it.”