BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) — “All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give … I surrender all.”
The words of the old hymn are familiar to many, but do Christians today know what it means to live fully surrendered to Jesus? In her new book, Bible teacher, speaker and actor, Priscilla Shirer explores what surrender looks like in the life of regular people who want to follow Jesus with abandon in practical, everyday rhythms of their regular lives. Shirer’s first book in five years, “I Surrender All,” examines what it looks like for all of life to come underneath the rule and authority of Jesus Christ.
On August 6, B&H Publishing Group released “I Surrender All” as an accompanying book to the latest project from filmmakers Alex and Stephen Kendrick — “The Forge,” starring Shirer and scheduled to hit theaters August 23.
In “I Surrender All,” Shirer calls readers to radically follow Christ, encouraging them to not fear what it might cost them but rather to fear what they would be missing if they withheld anything from Him.
“It’s one thing to be a Christian, to have accepted His gift of salvation. It’s another thing to decide to be His disciple,” Shirer says. “One is a free gift, and the other one comes at a cost. It requires surrender.”
Everything surrendered
The eight chapters of Shirer’s book are focused around the word “everything” — what Shirer believes is “the crux of what the invitation to discipleship demands.” Acknowledging the enormity of the ask, Shirer calls readers to surrender their whole lives to Christ — everything you have, everything you need, everything you are, everything you’re becoming, everything you want, everything you face, everywhere you go, everything for Jesus. But Shirer says this sacrifice is worth it because losing one’s life is the only way to find it.
This call to surrender everything is a call for new and seasoned believers alike, Shirer says, recognizing many believers have been known for welcoming the Savior into some spaces of their lives without giving Him unfettered access to their whole lives.
“We’re afraid surrendering the whole of ourselves to Him, giving Him full access to our entire lives, will cause disruptions to our preferred way of living our lives. So we say to Him, in essence … Come in as Savior. But not as Lord,” Shirer says. “Here lies the thin line of demarcation that separates the believer from the disciple. The saved life from the surrendered life. Believing is where we begin, but being His disciple is the road we then start traveling.”
Moved to surrender
At the end of each chapter, Shirer includes a section she intends to help readers digest and internalize what they’ve read, creating space for readers to actively process what surrendering to the Lord means. She also hopes these portions that include space for journaling will allow readers to be able to recall what the Holy Spirit was teaching them as they worked their way through “I Surrender All.”
“If this experience we’re embarking on is going to be complete, we can’t just read about it,” Shirer says. “We need to do something about it. More accurately, we need to let Him do something in us.”
Shirer hopes this book will be impossible to simply read and instead beckon readers to make a decision about the kind of Christian they will be — one called to a surrendered life, an abundant life, a disciple’s life. “I Surrender All” is published by B&H Publishing Group. It is available for pre-order now and will be released on Aug. 6, 2024, at Lifeway.com and other places where books are sold.
