Surrender That Brings Joy
posted by Navigators on July 1st, 2026 in Joy | Surrender
By Clint Trebesh, first published in Compass, Winter 2026.
Having just graduated from high school with endless hopes and dreams, my life’s mantra echoed the words of the conservationist John Muir when he said, ‘The mountains are calling, and I must go.’ So, throughout my first year of university, I embarked on wild adventures in the mountains every moment I could to search for significance, self-fulfilment and happiness. To my surprise, this search was beginning to leave a hollow and empty feeling in my heart. I wasn’t yet a believer, but God was quietly working to pull me to Himself.
At the invitation of a new Christian friend, I reluctantly started reading the Bible and investigating the person of Jesus with him. Everything changed. My preconceived notions of God being a distant law-enforcer and harsh judge were quickly replaced with the reality that God loved me and wanted a close relationship with me. Jesus wanted to be the one in whom I found true significance, fulfillment and joy. How could I deny or reject His free gift of grace, forgiveness and life? I couldn’t. Yet, it would require something of me.
Life in Christ requires faith and surrender that brings about an immeasurable joy. Throughout the gospel writings, Jesus reveals four baseline invitations that lead us to a life of true joy. In John 1:39, He invites us to ‘come and see’ who He is and what He’s on about. In Matthew 4:19, He says, ‘Come and follow me’ to join Him, align our lives with Him, and walk with Him wherever He goes. In Matthew 11:28, He compels those who labour to ‘come and be with me’, that we would abide deeply in Him and find rest in Him because He is gentle and humble in heart. In Luke 9:23, He challenges each of us to ‘come and deny yourself’ by embracing a life of hope-filled surrender where we die to ourselves.
As we draw near to Jesus, these four invitations become clear commandments and compelling ways of life that we can’t live without. In John 15:9-11 (ESV), Jesus further emphasises what this life of joy-filled surrender looks like. ‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.’
No one modelled and exemplified this way of living better than Jesus. When He was tempted three times by Satan in the wilderness, He surrendered His ways and desires to God the Father’s ways, and in doing so rejected the enemy’s temptations. At the end of His life, knowing He was about to be arrested and crucified, He pleaded with the Father to go another way but surrendered His desires and will saying, in Luke 22:42, ‘Father, if you’re willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.’ He set us an example that we should do as He had done. His life was a life of surrender that led to true joy. Yet, why is it often so difficult to find this true joy in our own lives?
There are often three ways that our lack of surrender is robbing our joy. First, rather than trusting Christ and depending on Him in faith, we find ourselves worrying and anxious about what we cannot understand or control. Second, rather than seeking Jesus with praise and thankfulness for His desires, we find ourselves primarily (or exclusively) praying about our own perceived needs and desires. Third, rather than patiently and humbly waiting for Him to work in His time and ways, we find ourselves feeling ‘owed and entitled’ to some sort of answers, actions or achievements by God. In all of these scenarios, like little children, we rely on a limited scope of understanding based on what we can observe. We fail to correctly interpret things the way God understands them. Thus, our lack of surrender robs us of joy.
If only we would have the perspective and perseverance that Christ modelled in Hebrews 12:1-2, ‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.’
Wherever we find ourselves in this journey of surrender, may our hope rest secure in the One who has sovereign authority over all of heaven and earth. May we fix our eyes on Jesus and not lose heart. May we lean into life with one another, encouraging and charging each other to remain steadfast in a life of surrender to Christ, in whom we may find true joy. May we pursue investing our lives in one another as disciples who will make disciples for generations to come. After all, the Lord is calling, and wherever He calls we must go.
Clint Trebesh and his family are part of our Melbourne Labouring Community. To find out more about their ministry, visit his Staff Profile Page.
Featured image: man on mountaintop in surrender, photo by Premkumar Masilamani, Unsplash.