Notes of Faith December 4, 2025

Full Surrender

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”

Luke 1:38

Marty Robinson was a tattooed, bearded punk rocker in Australia who “came to the end of his tether” due to alcohol addiction. Today he’s serving Christ with the Salvation Army as a prison chaplain, and his ministry is changing lives every day. He surrenders himself to Christ each day by beginning every day saying to Jesus, “Use me however you want.”1

That’s essentially what Mary said when Gabriel told her she would give birth to the Messiah. The J. B. Phillips rendering of Luke 1:38 says, “I belong to the Lord, body and soul…let it happen as you say.”

The world around us doesn’t grasp the idea of full surrender to the will of God, but only full surrender brings full victory. God’s wisdom is greater than ours. His plans are better. His guidance is perfect. Even when the pathway seems hard or the task uncertain, we can say, as Mary did, “I belong to the Lord, body and soul. I am willing. Let it be to me according to Your Word.”

All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.

Judson W. Van DeVenter

1Lauren Martin, “‘Full Surrender’ Sends Marty to Prison to Serve as a Chaplain,” Salvos Online, August 13, 2024.

The truth is that most Christians surrender “some”. We still have secret sins in the closet or somewhere else we think that we won’t be seen. But God sees all things all the time. We will not have the best that God desires for us until we surrender like Jesus did to His Father… “Not My will but Yours be done”! May this be our hearts desire as we strive to love God and love others.

Pastor Dale