The Moment of Surrender

The Moment of Surrender

— By M.T. Clark — P-2018, 07/17/2026 — Today’s Audio Podcast

Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of the last light of day breaking through the clouds over the calm waters of the Hudson River and tree-lined shore on the opposite side comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this serene scene from The Wire Event Center in Coxsackie, NY, during my niece Megan’s wedding reception on June 12th, 2026.

Well, it’s Friday, thank God, and I share this photo to welcome you to the weekend and to remind you that even though negative circumstances may periodically rain on your parade, the Lord’s light will find you.

I took this photo at my niece’s wedding reception, but before this moment, the skies had opened up with a real torrential downpour of rain just as the wedding guests were arriving, but the Lord was gracious enough to move the storm along in an hour or so. Although we got a late start, the outdoor ceremony went off without a hitch, and the reception that followed was an abundance of joy  

It was a good reminder that our plans are subject to the Lord’s will, but He is also gracious. The Lord is not thrown off by the storms that rattle our plans, and He often clears the sky at the very moment we have lost hope. As we head into the weekend, let’s praise the Lord and find the joy that comes from being fully surrendered to Him. Speaking of surrender….

Our series, “Freedom Stories,” continues today with the moment of surrender.

The Moment of Surrender

We tend to think of surrender as the thing we do once we are out of options, a last resort for the defeated, but Scripture treats surrender as the doorway to freedom rather than the admission of failure. James gives us the pattern in James 4:7-8 (NKJV), where he writes: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.”

Look closely at the order, because it is the order of every genuine breakthrough. First, we submit to God, then we resist the devil, and then we draw near, and the freedom flows out of all three together.

Notice that submission comes first, before resistance. Most of us try to resist the devil and our old patterns by sheer willpower, while still holding back the area we haven’t actually handed over to God, and we wonder why the resistance keeps failing.

James tells us the resistance only has power once the submission has happened, because a heart that has truly submitted to God is standing on God’s authority when it tells the enemy to flee, rather than standing on its own. You can’t resist the devil from a throne you are still trying to occupy yourself. You resist the devil by the power and authority you have in Christ, which you receive when you submit to God.

This is why surrender is not weakness but the most powerful thing a believer can do, and it is rarely a single dramatic event so much as a settled decision that often gets made in a specific moment.

There came a day for me, back in 2018, when I stopped negotiating with God over my sexual immorality and simply gave it to Him, and the relief of that wasn’t the relief of having finally conquered something, because my purity had to be walked out and fully established with time, but it was the relief of having finally let go of something.

After my first marriage dissolved, I had to decide how I would move forward and how I would handle myself in the area of sex in the future. The Holy Spirit used Scripture to convict my heart and to open my eyes to see that God’s sexual ethics were pretty clear: any sexual activity outside of a covenant marriage was sin. To do God’s will in that area of my life meant celibacy or marriage. So, I submitted myself to God, resisted the devil’s temptations, and drew closer to the Lord than I had ever been because I had surrendered an area of my life that I had kept to myself. I experienced a deeper level of intimacy in my relationship with God, and the Lord brought a new level of freedom to my life, sexual purity.

So, I can testify that the promise of James 4:8 is true. Draw near to God, James says, and He will draw near to you, which means the God we surrender to isn’t standing at a distance waiting to see if we will measure up. He is leaning in, ready to close the gap the instant we turn toward Him.

Is there an area of your life that you have been managing on your own, a place you have quietly fenced off from God while surrendering everything else around it?

Freedom in that area most likely won’t come from finally gaining control of it. It will come from giving it up, from submitting it to God, resisting the enemy on His authority, and drawing near to the One who is already drawing near to you. The moment of surrender is not the moment you lose. It is the moment you are set free.

Keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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