Surrendering to the Lord means letting go of your entire self, including your thoughts, desires, and actions, to God by recognizing and acknowledging His sovereignty and trusting in His plan for your life. It means letting go of control and submitting to God’s will, as well as striving to daily live in obedience to His teachings and commands. It means you must let go of all doubts, anxieties, and fears in order to trust Him fully.
It means putting aside your ego and pride (which is difficult), and to trust in God that you cannot see or fully understand (which is even more difficult). It means tuning out the world’s voice (as well as your own) and instead choosing to listen intently only to what God whispers within you—then choosing, often minute by minute, to live in obedience according to His commands.
But how do we do this? Well, I believe that it begins when we stop compartmentalizing our faith, that is, separating our faith from the other aspects of our lives. We often fail to realize that all parts of our lives have a spiritual component. Yet we shove that reality aside and relegate faith to certain days of the week—usually Sunday—or to certain parts of the day. We should look to make every aspect of our life coherent with the other parts. How we act at church and around our Christian friends must be consistent with how we act in different environments and with other people. It means living out our faith—living faithfully—at all times and in all circumstances; integrating what we believe with what we say and do. Integrity is the beginning of righteousness.