Questioning Yourself: The Path to Genuine Surrender
There is something profoundly uncomfortable about honest self-examination. Most of us prefer to keep moving, keep performing, keep maintaining the appearance that we have it together. But every now and then, life slows us down long enough to ask the hard questions. Are we really who we claim to be? Are we truly surrendered to God, or are we just going through the motions?
The apostle Paul issued a straightforward challenge in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6, urging believers to examine themselves to see whether they are genuinely in the faith. Not a casual glance in the mirror, but a real, honest reckoning with where we stand. That kind of self-examination is uncomfortable precisely because it is necessary.
The Evidence Is All Around Us
One of the great temptations of the Christian life is to doubt God when our circumstances do not match our expectations. John the Baptist knew this tension well. He had announced the arrival of Jesus, declared that Christ must increase while he himself must decrease, and yet he found himself sitting in a prison cell with no rescue in sight. From that dark place, he sent messengers to ask Jesus directly: are you really the one, or should we be looking for someone else?
It is a remarkably human question. When our situation does not resolve the way we believed it would, when healing does not come on our timeline or provision does not arrive the way we imagined, we can find ourselves asking the same thing. Is God really who He says He is?
The answer Jesus sent back to John in Matthew 11:4-6 was not a theological argument. It was a list of evidence. The blind were seeing. The lame were walking. The dead were being raised. The good news was reaching people who had nothing. In other words, look around. The proof is already there.
That same evidence surrounds us today. Lives being transformed, people stepping out of years of darkness and into freedom, men and women finding the courage to be honest about their struggles for the first time. God is still doing exactly what He has always done. The question is whether we are paying attention.
The Danger of Preconceived Answers
The Old Testament account of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 is one of the most relatable stories in all of Scripture. Here was a powerful, highly regarded military commander who had every earthly advantage except one. He had leprosy. When word reached him that a prophet in Israel could heal him, he made the journey with treasure in tow and a very clear picture in his mind of how this encounter should unfold.
What he got instead was a messenger at the door and instructions to go dip in the Jordan River seven times. No grand ceremony. No dramatic moment. Just a muddy river and a simple command.
Naaman was furious. He had answers for how God should work, and this was not it.
How often do we do the same thing? We come before God with our requests already half-answered in our own minds. We lay out the parameters, suggest the solutions, and then wonder why we feel stuck. The truth is that our preconceived notions about how God should move can become the very thing that blocks us from receiving what He wants to give.
Naaman's servants talked him down. They reasoned with him: if the prophet had asked you to do something difficult and impressive, would you not have done it? So why not do this simple thing? Naaman humbled himself, went to the Jordan, dipped seven times, and came up with skin as clean as a young child's. The miracle was waiting on the other side of his surrender.
A Living Sacrifice, Not Just a Sunday Performance
Romans 12:1-2 makes a demand that is easy to read past. Paul urges believers to offer their entire lives as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. He calls this our true and proper worship. Not just the moments when music moves us or a message lands well, but every interaction, every decision, every conversation in the marketplace, at work, and at home.
The passage continues with a warning not to conform to the pattern of the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of the mind. And here is where Paul places the key insight: it is only after that transformation begins that we gain the ability to discern God's good, pleasing, and perfect will.
We tend to skip to the end. We want to know God's will before we have done the work of becoming the kind of person who can recognize it. But the order matters. Surrender first. Transformation follows. Clarity comes after that.
It is also worth sitting with the uncomfortable contrast that many of us live with daily. We would drive thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to solve a problem, but we will not walk fifty feet toward God when He is calling us forward. We would adjust our schedule at the last minute for entertainment but need weeks of advance notice for anything related to our faith. We have areas where we are genuinely thriving in our walk with God, and other areas that are quietly suffering from neglect.
Psalm 139:23-24 captures the prayer we need to be praying. It is a bold request, asking God to search our hearts, test our thoughts, and reveal anything in us that is out of alignment with His ways. That is not a comfortable prayer. But it is an honest one.
The Answer to the Wretched Condition
Paul's anguished cry in Romans 7:24 resonates with anyone who has ever felt the gap between who they want to be and who they actually are. What a wretched man I am. Who will rescue me from this condition?
The answer comes immediately in verse 25. Thanks be to God, who delivers through Jesus Christ.
That deliverance is available to anyone willing to humble themselves and ask for it. Not because we have earned it or figured it out, but because Christ paid for it fully. Whatever you are carrying today, whatever has kept you at a distance from God, whatever dark corner you have retreated to, the rescue is real and it is near.
The first step is simply to take a step.
