I Surrender … Some?

“We have left everything to follow you.” Mark 10:28

Today many of us will gather to worship the Lord in our churches. We will stand and sing hymns of praise. Will we sing the hymns, praise choruses on auto-pilot or will we actually THINK about what we are singing?

Judson Van De Venter wrote a powerful hymn in the late 1800’s. Most likely the words are familiar to you …
All to Jesus I surrender,
All to Him I freely give.
I will ever love and trust Him,

In His presence daily live.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Humbly at His feet I bow.
Worldly pleasures all forsaken,
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

All to Jesus I surrender,
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine.
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

All to Jesus, I surrender,
Lord, I give myself to Thee.
Fill me with Thy love and power,

Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain
I surrender ALL.
I surrender ALL.
ALL to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender ALL.

I have to be honest, I am not sure that I can always sing that and mean it. It is much easier to sing, “I surrender some” versus “I surrender all.” The problem is that He doesn’t want a part. He doesn’t want some – He wants ALL.

My prayer is similar to one I read this week by A. W. Tozer:

Father, I want to know You, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from You the terror of parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that You may enter and dwell there without a rival. Then You shall make the place of Your feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Yourself will be the light of it, an there shall be no night there.

That’s my prayer, Lord. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick