Submit & Surrender | Trusting God in Uncertainty
Throughout our life, God continuously opens doors for us. These doors lead to new seasons, blessings and opportunities. But whilst God opens doors for us, the path to those doors isn't always clear. In other words, we can sense where He is calling us, yet we do not always know how to get there, and this is where doubts, fear, and uncertainty can arise.
In Deuteronomy 31:8, the Israelites find themselves in this exact situation. After forty years in the wilderness, they were about to step into a new season. The land of milk and honey that God had promised them generations ago was finally within reach. But whilst the promise was clear, the path wasn't. Moses was gone, Joshua was new, and the land ahead was occupied and unknown. Uncertainty surrounded them on every side.
Yet it was right into that uncertainty that God spoke to them through Moses and said, "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you."
And what was true for Israel is true for us. Every season God calls us into, He has already entered first. Every door He opens, He has already passed through. The path may feel unknown to us, but it is never unknown to Him. Our role, then, is not to figure it all out before we move - it is to submit & surrender to God's leading. But what does it actually mean to 'submit & surrender'...?
The words submit and surrender are often misunderstood. In our culture, they tend to carry connotations of weakness or defeat. But in the context of our relationship with God, they mean something entirely different and something far more beautiful.
To submit is to willingly place ourselves under God's authority, and to allow Him to lead and direct our lives. It is an active, daily decision to trust that His wisdom is greater than ours and to align our will with His, especially in the areas of our lives we most want to hold on to.
To surrender is to release. It is the moment we open our hands and let go of the plans and outcomes we have been gripping tightly. Surrendering does not mean giving up on the dreams and desires God has placed within us. It means entrusting them back to the One who gave them to us in the first place.
Together, submission and surrender go hand in hand. You cannot truly surrender without first submitting to the One you are surrendering to, and submission without surrender can become just head knowledge without heart change. One positions us under God's authority, the other releases what we have been holding. Together, they describe a posture of the heart, not a one-time act, but an ongoing rhythm of the Christian life. Every time a new door of opportunity opens and every time the path feels uncertain, we are invited to submit and surrender again.
If submitting and surrendering to God is such a good thing, why do we find it so hard?
1) Fear Of The Unknown
Fear is often the first barrier. Fear of the unknown. Fear that if we let go, things will fall apart. Fear that God's plan may look different from ours, and that different means worse. Fear convinces us that control is protection, but control is an illusion. The grip we hold over our own lives does not make us safer; it simply makes us more anxious.
2) Leaning On Our Understanding
Many of us are planners. We have visions, goals, and timelines mapped out in our hearts and minds and there is nothing wrong with that. (In fact, if you are a planner at heart, I have something in the shop that might have your name on it!). But when our understanding of how things should go becomes greater than our trust in how God will lead, we have placed our wisdom above His. As Isaiah 55:9 reminds us, His ways are higher than ours. What looks like a detour to us may be exactly the path He intended.
3) Past Disappointments
Some of us have also been shaped by past disappointment. We have surrendered before and felt like nothing changed, or things became harder. But we have to understand that surrender does not always look like immediate breakthroughs. Sometimes it looks like a quiet peace in the middle of a storm, or a season of waiting that is doing a deeper work in us than we can yet see. God is always faithful, but He is not always fast, and His faithfulness does not always look the way we expected.
And underneath all of it is the deeply human tendency to believe that we know best. That we can handle this on our own. But that kind of pride keeps us at the centre of a story that was never meant to revolve around us. Humility invites us back to the place of trust.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." — Jeremiah 29:11
In Jeremiah 29:11, God speaks directly into uncertainty. These words were written to the Israelites during one of the most painful seasons of their history. They were in exile, far from home, and the future felt anything but certain. Yet it was there, in the middle of that uncertainty, that God reminded them that He had a plan for them. He had not forgotten them. He had not abandoned them. And even though the situation looked bleak, their future wouldn't be.
This is why we must trust God anyway. Not because surrender is easy, but because God is trustworthy. His character has not changed. His love for you has not changed. His purpose for your life has not changed. When we release what we are holding, we are not handing it to chance. We are placing it into the hands of the One who formed the world, who knows the end from the beginning, and who calls you by name.
You can trust Him with your plans because He is the One who gave you purpose in the first place.
Sister in Christ, submitting and surrendering to God is not a sign of weakness, it is one of the greatest acts of faith you can offer Him. You do not need to have it all figured out before you take the next step. You do not need to see the full path before you move. God has already gone before you, and He is with you every step of the way. As you choose to release your plans, your timelines, and your need for control into His hands, trust that He is faithful to lead you exactly where you need to be. The door He has opened for you is not an accident, and the path He has prepared is not without purpose. Keep walking, keep trusting, and keep surrendering, because the One who goes before you has never once lost His way.