Sermon Quotes on Surrender

Augustine of Hippo

God gives where he finds empty hands.

Ruth Haley Barton

Surrender—or “abandonment to divine providence,” as it is called in some of the older writings—is the central dynamic of the spiritual life, and retreat offers us many concrete opportunities for practicing it.

Taken from Invitation to Retreat: The Gift and Necessity of Time Away with God by Ruth Haley Barton Copyright (c) 2018 by Ruth Haley Barton. Published by InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, IL. www.ivpress.com

Ignatius of Loyola

There are very few men who realize what God would make of them if they abandoned themselves into His hands and let themselves be formed by His Grace.

Letter to Ascanio Colonna (Rome, April 25, 1543), quoted in “Abandoning Ourselves to His Hands,” Bishop Felipe J. Estévez, St. Augustine Catholic (September/October 2014), 7, (accessed June 3, 2016).

Timothy Keller

It is only when you reach the very bottom, when everything falls apart, when all your schemes and resources are broken and exhausted, that you are finally open to learning how to completely depend on God. As is often said, you never realize that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have.

The Prodigal Prophet: Jonah and the Mystery of God’s Mercy (New York: Viking, 2018, p.72).

Martin Luther

Work and let him give the fruits therefore! Rule, and let him prosper it! Battle, and let him give victory! Preach, and let him make hearts devout!”

Quoted in Gustaf Wingren, Luther on Vocation, trans. Carl C. Rasmussen (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2004), 194.

Andrew Murray

God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to Him.

Andrew Murray

May not a single moment of my life be spent outside the light, love and joy of God’s presence and not a moment without the entire surrender of myself as a vessel for Him to fill full of His Spirit and His love.

A.W. Pink

Taking up my “cross” means a life voluntarily surrendered to God.

Alan Redpath

The condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart.

Paul David Tripp

True prayer happens at the intersection of surrender and celebration.

Taken from New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp, © 2014. Used by permission of Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org.

Christopher J. H. Wright

I may wonder what kind of mission God has for me, when I should ask what kind of me God wants for his mission.