The Truth About The Physical Posture of Surrender

There’s something about the physical posture of surrender—kneeling low or lifting expectant hands high—that ushers you to holy ground where God is near and only He matters. I remember childhood examples and spending countless hours face down on the carpet in my grad school dorm. Being at Asbury earlier this year reminded me of how special it is to linger here undistracted, honest and undone.

Even more than the rustle of wind through leaves, sun warming my face, and fresh outside air in my lungs, worship music connects me to God. If you know me, you probably know that I play songs loud and on repeat. Songs that pull me to my knees. Put words to my longing to be right next to God. Make me forget what was keeping me busy.

Kneeling feels opposite to all we do to juggle our lives, do our work well, love our people dearly. It’s stillness. A pause. Letting go of pride, expectations, parameters.

But it unlocks something we miss when we hold our heads high, and that’s what I’m after. This soul clearing that makes thin the distance between where God and people dwell.

God is here in the waiting. Here in the hoping and praying and asking. Here in the doors you’ve been knocking on until your fists are busted.

And we’ve gotten so used to pushing it all down that we stop expecting God to show up on an ordinary Tuesday. Give us something infinitely better than what we’ve thought we’ve wanted: Himself.

Gratitude and surrender

Cultivating a life worth imitating takes you to the place where God in His glory overshadows your problems, your pain, your resolutions, your convictions. It’s the truest way to right ourselves actually, because chasing away the darkness never works. And dropping to your knees turns on the light.

King Solomon touches on this in Proverbs 16:5-6.

Yahweh detests all the proud of heart,

for pride attracts his punishment—

and you can count on that!

You can avoid evil through surrendered worship

and the fear of God,

for the power of his faithful love

removes sin’s guilt and grip over you.
TPT

The physical posture of surrender lays bare our heart and releases our sincere worship. Because how can we behold our God and not praise Him with the whole of our being?

The fear of God Solomon prescribes is something different than the way we fear heights, spiders, rejection, and failure. Reverence is another word we could use here. It’s awe and respect wrapped up together.

John Milton would tell you that “gratitude bestows reverence,” and I’ve found this link in my own life. I count thanks as Ann Voskamp taught the world how, and it corrals my restless thoughts and points me back to God.

As Ann writes in One Thousand Gifts,

The act of sacrificing thank offerings to God—even for the bread and cup of cost, for cancer and crucifixion—this prepares the way for God to show us His fullest salvation from bitter, angry, resentful lives and from all sin that estranges us from Him . . . Our salvation in Christ is real, yet the completeness of that salvation is not fully realized until the life realizes the need to give thanks.
p. 40

Thanks turns into reverence, and we surrender. See how big God is and how small we are. Raise unclenched fists in praise and find ourselves face down on the floor.

The posture of surrender leads to questions

Choose the surrendered life and it will raise questions. Because you can’t live how you used to when you’re hyper aware that God is near. You can’t hang your head in shame because this brilliant God tells you that you matter. You can’t hide behind fear and insecurity because there’s a glory-soaked path before you. You can’t call yourself names because the One who named you holds your hand and knows your heart.

Bow low and your life will change. From the inside out.

Bow low and it will change your life. From the inside out.

That’s how we lead others to Jesus in love—when His holy gaze sears us through, burns what distances us from Him, we stay. When He teaches us, turns us, corrects us, we obey. And when the people around us see the evidence of God at work in our life, we point them to Him.

Keep trying to live this missional life on your own and you’ll burn out. But let God in and your gratitude will draw you to the carpet. Press into your longing to be near Him, open up your lives to the people around you, and you’ll lead others to Him.

Let’s pray.

God, we confess it’s been too long since we knelt in reverence. We’ve tasted our own tears and pride more than Your glory. But today we choose the holy ground of sincere surrender. We choose You.

Meet us in our hunger. Grow our desire for You. Cleanse our hearts of anytime less than pure.

And this work You do in the quiet, may we not silence or contain it. It’s for more than just us, so teach us how to share it.

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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