When God asks us to surrender our sins, He’s asking for the whole lot.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you,

then those of them whom you let remain shall be as barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides,

and they shall trouble you in the land where you dwell.

Numbers 33:55

In the scripture above, the Israelites are told to drive out every inhabitant from the promised land lest any who remain become barbs in their eyes and thorns in their sides.

And so it is with us when the Lord searches our hearts and convicts us. We must surrender it all to Him. We must not knowingly hold back anything from the Lord. Every sin that we hold on to will become a barb in our eyes as we search for truth and a thorn in our side as we seek to serve the Lord. That sounds painful, doesn’t it!?  That’s why we must drive out all the sinful inhabitants of our hearts so that the Lord can fill us with Himself.

Sometimes this seems hard to do because our sinful ways have become a comfort to us. Our pet sins have become our way of coping with life, and so we decide that it’s ok to keep those little sins that help us cope. But when we do not confess and repent of all our known sins but reserve a place for our pet sins, we leave room for Satan to occupy that space within us.

God wants no territory left for Satan.

Coming fully to Christ means having the courage to unburden ourselves before the Lord completely. God does not want to leave any territory within us for Satan to dwell.

We need to bring everything to God because Satan will occupy any area of our life that we choose to hold back from God, and the result will be a lack of peace.

Surrendering all includes surrendering your past.

When we hold on to our past, we have no freedom to embrace the gift of new life God offers us daily. We cannot live in two worlds. We must choose between living as a prisoner, chained to our past, or living an abundant life of freedom in Christ in the present.

We must remain in Christ.

We hear Christ when we are in fellowship with Him. Because it is when we are in fellowship with the Lord that we will remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit and heed His conviction of our sins.

Friend, we must drive out the sinful inhabitants that dwell in our hearts so we are not blinded and crippled by them again and again. We must not strike up a deal to share space with any of our sins. We must not allow them to stay in the land that the Lord has claimed.

 If you are struggling to find a place of peace in this fallen world I would love to chat with you. You can schedule a free call with me here: https://www.reneewhitelifecoach.com/coaching