Joe Lynn Turner replaced Graham Bonnet on lead vocals for the "Difficult to Cure" album. Bonnet lasted just one album with the band: Down to Earth (1979). He recalls "I Surrender" being the only one they had during the painstaking rehearsals before he was replaced on Difficult to Cure. "That's the only song we had. So we're sitting around looking at each other and Ritchie [Blackmore] would come in for like half an hour and plonk on his bass pedals or whatever the hell, and then he would go. It was unproductive. The thrill had gone, so to speak. Bonnet had had enough. He went back to LA and the Band's management phoned him with some solutions to how he was feeling but he was finished with Rainbow. Bonnet left in frustration.
I surrender is a song that is about a breakup in a relationship. Reading between the lines something has happened for the girl in the relationship to go. Whether it something the guy has done, it's unclear. One thing is for sure there is remorse or repentance as he tries to reach out to her in this song. He places all that he is in her care. He invites her to be tender or merciful in return. It's song that is far reaching and carries with it the air of submission.
I surrender to your heart babe
Do anything that you want me to do
Please be tender I'm in your hands girl
This is a feeling I never knew
You know I tried to make it on my own
That's not the way it was meant to be
Spend my time waiting by the phone
Oh darling come back to me
I surrender, I surrender
I'm giving up the role of pretender
Oh be tender, Girl be tender
Can't you feel the love that I send her
I surrender
I remember, seems like a lifetime
Can't believe it's a matter of days
Since you left me I'm near to heartbreak
I want you so bad don't turn away
What does it take to stay by my side
You know I'll do what you want me to
Don't take away this feeling inside
I'm still in love with you
I surrender, I surrender
I'm giving up the role of pretender
I remember, I remember
Can't you feel the love that I send her
I surrender
I surrender, I surrender
Darling now won't you be tender
Surrender, oh surrender
Feel the love that I send her
I surrender
Surrender is the starting point in any relationship. When you surrender you ambitions, your abilities, gifts, skills, talents. When you surrender you money, your wealth or lack of it, you future and your destiny. The theme of surrender was used in the old marriage vows "I cleave to you and no other" It's about laying down your life in submission. The other point to make about surrender is that you give up any prospect of your own individual rights, those are laid down as well. In a relationship surrender is the honesty that cements the thing together.
The same is true in a relationship with Jesus. Surrender is the starting point that you build out from. When there is no surrender then there will be ulterior motives at play that will cause friction in your own heart and walk with God. Being vulnerable to surrender is the beginning. Jesus teaches a parable about what this looks like in Luke's Gospel.
Luke 18:9-14 - “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
The parable finishes with Jesus suggesting that the tax collector and not the pharisee went home justified. Why? Because the tax collector Surrendered himself to God. the tax collector knew his condition, knew his own heart and ways. He had held the mirror up to his own life and found it broken. The tax collector did not even have the garuntee of God's mercy as asked for it but may not have been sure of receiving it. The point of the parable is that the pharisee lain nothing down, he did not surrender to God. He applauded himself for his actions, he gave himself a pat on the back for his religious observances. He invited God to do the same. He almost comes near to saying that he was doing God a favour and expected something in return. The tax collector on the other hand has nothing to ask God to applaud him for. He had no religious observances that we know about. He did not even know If he would receive mercy as he knew he was not deserving of anything. The were both there in the temple to pray.
When you come before Jesus with nothing except your broken heart and life - that is enough. Surrender is saying to Jesus - I come in rags, I give you my ambitions, my gifts, skills, talents, abilities, my experience, my past, my present, my future, my life and my all. When we say "Lord even what happens beyond now I leave in your hands. When God captures us and apprehends so to speak, when he takes us captive, so to speak we cannot agree the terms. We give up all rights to the consequences of our lives. Total Surrender.
This is where God had brought me to recently. Will I give up my rights, my arrogance to do things my way. My audacity to tell Jesus that I know better. My clinging on to my tatted rags rather than to receive a royal robe that he gives to sons. My stupidity to tell God that the problems that I have are more powerful them his ability to give me freedom. When you say it like that it just does not make sense - When you say it like that .....Its a no brainer.
In Luke 15 the story of the man with two sons places the younger son far away from home having squandered his inheritance. The passage says "When he came to his senses" He was filled with remorse over the things he had done and he knew he had to go to his father and plead for mercy. He knew that he might not get given forgiveness. So he returned home and pleaded mercy from a surrendered heart. He gave up his rights, humbled himself and awaited the outcome. Grace came and he began a new life that day far better then the old one.
Luke 15:17- 25 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
May we learn the ways of the tax collector and the prodigal son. Surrender is the only way to live the christian life in fullness. John the baptist said "Less of me and more of him" (Paraphrased) This is the way to real fulfilment when surrender, when we give up, when we humble ourselves under God's almighty hand. When we leave the outcomes to him. "I surrender, I surrender" is the beginning of an amazing life in Jesus. Where are you today? Whats going on in your heart? Lay it all at his feet and lean heavily on his mercy, power and ability because in your broken you really have nothing to lose.
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