I have a question regarding salvation and belief vs surrendering your life to God. Isn’t surrendering something you do out of gratitude? Why do some churches say you must surrender your life when you are saved? I believe choosing to surrender your life is an on going process because people will have a hard time surrendering everything all at once. Ive been a Christian awhile and still hold onto things because its hard to give them up.
Getting saved and surrendering your life to the Lord are two separate things. Nothing in the Bible says surrendering your life is necessary to be saved. In fact, Paul said we should do this as a result of being saved (Romans 12:1-2). And we’re never told that the failure to surrender everything will result in the loss of our salvation. Salvation is based solely on our belief that Jesus died for our sins and rose again. Failing to surrender will keep us from living a victorious life here, but it won’t deprive us of our guaranteed inheritance in Heaven.
When witnessing to others people often say, “God has a wonderful plan for your life.” They don’t realize that non-believers don’t want God’s plan for their life, they want to make their own plans. But after we’re saved and begin experiencing the benefits of God’s presence in our life, we become more excited about His plan for us. As we do, we become more willing to surrender our lives to Him. The more complete our surrender is the more victorious our life will be.