Whether it happens during a time of worship or in a quiet moment of prayer, both we and God know instantly when we have surrendered.
Surrender breaks chains, opens our ears to God and allows the grace of God to rule in us. There is no substitute, no alternative and no counterfeit that will pass the test.
Surrender is not the place where prayer and praise end, but it is the place where they truly begin.
Surrender is the moment when God has our full and undivided attention. Surrender is the place where we find that God having His way with our life is a source
of peace. Just as the stillness of the waters reflect the images of the clouds, so in the quietness of our surrendered hearts we begin to reflect the life of Jesus.
Surrender can never be God's will plus this or that of ours. Neither can it be, God's will except what we decide is too much for us. Surrender to God comes like the waters of a river that end at a waterfall. No matter how the river swirls and churns, it will finally have to go over the edge and fall into the place that God has prepared for it. Only after the waterfall can the river find quietness and peace. Real worship begins at the foot of the waterfall called unconditional surrender. No one can do it for us, and no one else can give it to us. This is the place where we each must come...one by one to God's throne of grace by our own choice of unconditional surrender to Him!
Hebrews 12:1 reminds us to run with patience the race that is marked out for us and to throw off everything that slows us down. There are moments when life seems confusing and we feel as if we are running aimlessly. It is at those times important to look for the landmarks that God has placed along our way. There are people in the crowd who God has put there to watch our race. There are the promises of God's word that tell us when we have gotten off track and there is the quiet voice of our own conscience that pulls us back from dark paths leading away from God.
God has marked our course, but when we allow confusion to rule. temptations to enter or weariness to make us turn aside we get in trouble. The distractions of life do not have to get us off course. If it seems today that you are overwhelmed with a thousand things then it is time to step back and see the bigger horizon of eternity that is the finish line of the race God has given us all. There across the far horizon our struggle seems much smaller and the twists and turns of our race straighten out. There at God's own throne we see Jesus standing waiting for us and encouraging us to go on. He is the one who fired off the starting gun at the beginning of our race and He is the one who is waiting to greet us at our finish line. Don't give up. Don't allow discouragement to rule your heart today. Don't allow circumstance or obstacles to make it seem that the race is lost. 
