SUCCESS IS SPELT SURRENDER UNTO GOD

Richard Baxter said “A surrendered life in the hands of a holy God is a fearful thing.” God is looking for surrendered or submissive people. The Bible word for “surrender” when we surrender our total selves to God is the word is the word “broken” or “brokenness”.
God uses broken things, broken vessels because that represents something totally surrendered to God. It was a divine principle. When Jesus fed the 5000 it says He took the bread, He broke it, He blessed it and then He used it. That is a divine principle that we see all through scripture. God takes us, He breaks us, He blesses us and then He uses us. So the principle of brokenness is the principle of total surrender to God, where we say, “God, whatever You want, that’s what I want to do with my life. Whatever you want me to do.”
Psalm 51:17 David says, ”It is a broken spirit You want, remorse and repentance. A broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not ignore.” Jeremiah 4:3 “Plow up the hardness of your heart otherwise the good seed will be wasted among the thorns.” God uses broken things.

The story of Gideon in the Old Testament, God said, “I want 300 of you to go out against 450,000 enemies,” – not very good odds. He said, “Surround the camp and take three items for warfare – a trumpet, a lit torch, and a clay pot to go over the torch to hide the fire.” They went out and surrounded the camp at night. When God said Go! they blew the trumpets, they broke the pots, the light shown out and caused mass confusion among the enemy. They began killing off themselves and God gave a tremendous victory to Gideon and his band of 300.

What would have happened if the pots had not been broken? There would have been no victory. But when the pots were broken the light shown out. Then they got victory. When our lives are broken before the Lord, the light is able to shine out in our lives. Kay and I were talking about this, about the alabaster box. The woman who brought the box filled with perfume broke it and poured the perfume on Jesus’ feet and anointed Him and the fragrance filled the room. There was no fragrance until the box was broken. All through scripture you’ll find these things. Light, when it’s broken, fractured, makes a many-colored rainbow. That’s what happens in our lives. Our lives take on new meaning and new color and new vitality when we are fully surrendered to God.

Jesus is the supreme example of this. Luke 22:42 “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. But not My will but Your’s be done.” When Jesus looked at the cup, He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane. In the New Testament, “cup” always represents suffering. The cup of suffering. When Jesus looked into that cup, He saw every sin ever committed – that I ever committed, will ever commit, every sin you’ve ever committed. He saw every income tax cheated on, every adultery, every dishonesty, every lie, every murder, every rape. He looks at that and realizes that He’s going to take the blame for all those things on His life. He looks into that cup of suffering and says, “Father, if it is possible take this cup away from Me. But nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done.” That’s surrender. That’s total submission.