A Story of Unsurrendered Parts: How Do I Surrender?

It is the armyworm egg you do not destroy that arises and kills all your farm’s produce.

Unsurrendered Fatherhood

David surrendered many parts of his life but we do not see him surrender his fatherhood to God. His ways as a mighty man of war were starkly contrasted with how he raised his sons. Amnon raped his half-sister Tamar. David did nothing, not even raise his voice at his son. Absalom later went and avenged Tamar by killing his half-brother Amnon.

He then fled into exile and through treachery came back to his father’s land. For 2 years he did not speak directly to his father and used a middleman to get to him. When David met him, he did not even scold him. He embraced him. Nothing done. No correction. No justice.

Later, the seed of anger and murder probably led to how Absalom dealt treacherously with his father and he almost overthrew him. It is God’s grace that contended for David. David nearly died because of a seed of unsurrendered fatherhood.

David was clearly in the wrong place at the wrong time

Unsurrendered Lust

David failed to surrender something else: lust. “At the time when kings go off to war”, David was at his residence when he saw Bathsheba. He lustfully approached a married woman and had his way with her (contextually speaking, when a king summoned you, you had little choice and defiance may have meant death. This was an unfair power dynamic). Bathsheba got pregnant and David tried to manipulate Uriah to come back from war and tried to make him drunk (probably so that the conception date would align with his terrible deed). His plan failed. He then proceeded to kill Uriah with the arm of the Ammonites.

But God saw.

The Punishment

God gave the word through his prophet that, “Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife….Behold, I will raise adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ” and “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

The son born by Bathsheba died.

Absalom lay with David’s wives in broad daylight.

His son Absalom treacherously attempted to take his kingdom and died violently and this pattern of violence and error replicated itself along the bloodline.

The Point

Unfortunate and history altering events started with seemingly simple unsurrendered fatherhood (in this case) and unsurrendered lust. Then there came murder and treachery. Soon, blood-line punishment prevailed.

This pattern of uncorrected error magnifying itself is seen throughout scripture and perhaps serves to help teach us to be wary of what we allow to bloom in our gardens.

Our Saving Grace

God is merciful and can redeem time by His grace, but Galatians 6:7 stands as true. You do reap what you sow.

It is not too late to seek God and correct your course. It is not too late to ask God into your heart and surrender the frayed ends of your ropes. There is no sin too great for God to redeem, nor error too far stretched for God to bring to balance.

God can save and set free indeed!

You can repent and begin anew:

Dear Jesus, I am grateful for the precious gift of life and salvation that you have given me without any cost. Today, I humbly come before you as a sinner who has made decisions that have not pleased you. I am genuinely sorry for the wrongs I have committed that have hurt our relationship. I surrender my life to you and trust in your divine process and will for my life. I reject the ways of the devil and seek to align myself with your loving ways. Today, I confess you, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior and commit to walking with you for the rest of my life. I am deeply thankful for your gracious acceptance into your kingdom. Amen.

Choose to sow good.