Surrender Daily



"Take the helmet of salvation" (Ephesians 6:17)

One of the misconceptions about spiritual warfare is that it is something that you do one time. When we see the word “salvation” in the New Testament, our minds immediately go to the moment when we surrender our lives to Jesus and receive his forgiveness for our sins. But we see a different shade of meaning in this verse. Paul was writing to Christians who were already saved to take the helmet of salvation. That doesn’t mean he was telling them to get saved again. It means that the posture that we adopt when we give our lives to Jesus, the posture of surrender, is one we need to continually maintain for sustained spiritual victory.

Too may times Christians attempt to live life under their own power and their own strength, as if we don’t need God’s protection or His power in our lives. But Jesus himself said that “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Taking the helmet of salvation is maintaining a mindset of humble dependence on God. It’s reminding ourselves that we are victorious only because of Christ and what he’s done for us. On our own we are nothing. On our own we are defeated.

Surrendering daily is cultivating an attitude of grateful humility, rejecting pride and embracing the reality that without God we can do nothing. At the end of the day, surrendering daily is a heart issue. How important is it? Look at what James writes, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:7). Do you want God’s grace, His protection, His victory? Cultivate a continued posture of humility in your life. Learn to surrender daily. That humility will become a helmet, protecting your life from attack.

ON THE COUCH WITH GOD

1. Have there been times when pride and self-reliance have been your default posture in life? Did you sense God’s blessing during those periods or did it seem like God was actively opposing you (James 4:7)?

2. How hard is it to maintain an attitude of humility in your life? What works against you? What are ways you’ve learned that have helped you to maintain humility and dependence on God?

NEXT STEP

The next step in surrendering daily is to get on your knees before you leave the house each day. Literally. Bend down to the ground, the lower the better. If you can literally prostrate yourself on the ground, do it and declare your dependence upon God today. That humbling physical posture is a signal that you can’t be successful today without God.


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