I Surrender All

Jul 19

"I surrender all, I surrender all, all to thee my blessed savior, I surrender all." - Judson W. Van De Venter

The wonderful hymn, “I Surrender All,” is an excellent example of a song written as a personal commitment to the Lordship of Christ. Written by Judson Van DeVenter in 1896 during a time when he was struggling with a vocational decision, the song led him to make the decision to surrender to the Lordship of Christ.

Judson had deeply struggled between developing his talents in teaching and art versus going into full-time evangelistic ministry. He didn’t feel ready or fully equipped for ministry, but the battle inside himself continued until the day he finally decided to surrender all to Jesus. He left his ambition and rising talent in the field of arts and as a teacher to focus instead on becoming an evangelist. When he made the decision, he discovered deep down in his soul a talent he had never known was there. He believed the song “I Surrender All” was hidden in his heart until the day he decided to surrender all to follow Christ’s leading. He summarized the experience this way, “God had hidden a song in my heart, and touching a tender chord, he caused me to sing.”

All disciples of Jesus are called to surrender in the same way—to be willing to take up our own cross (Luke 14:27). The apostle Paul had a “surrender all'' experience. Paul’s surrender to Christ was dramatic. Having been the chief prosecutor of Christ’s followers, Paul surrendered to Christ beginning with an encounter on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). That act led to a lifetime of surrender in which he gave up everything in order to live for Christ. He summarized it this way: “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8).

The Concept of Surrender

The idea of surrender is to choose not to resist but to submit to authority instead. While we may think of surrender most readily in military terms, surrender is also experienced personally. The most consequential act of surrender in history happened when Jesus chose not to resist His Father’s will for Him to die on a cross: “Nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).

If you are a disciple of Christ, contemplate the degree of your surrender to Him and any resistance you feel. One of the hardest areas for most Christians to “surrender all” is in the area of finance. We give lip service to the truth that “God owns it all” but in reality, we cling tightly to the wealth, resources, property, or business interests that He entrusts to us as though they are ours to possess. Just as I wrote in my book, The Steward Investor:

"The central essence of biblical stewardship is managing everything God brings into the believer's life, including—and especially—investments in a manner that honors God and fulfills His purposes"

Living a “Surrender All” Life

“Surrender all” living requires that nothing is off-limits. God is calling you to “surrender all” in the area of finances. Randy Alcorn, in his book Managing God’s Money, makes this provocative statement:

“If anything we have is off-limits to God, if it’s not subject to prayerful dialogue, then let’s be honest about it—we aren’t stewards, we’re embezzlers. We aren’t serving God; we’re playing God.”

Unfortunately, research has shown that for most Christians, their faith does not influence how they invest. Instead, they follow the traditional thinking idealized by Milton Friedman that the primary purpose of business is to increase shareholder value. Maximizing financial return over optimizing outcomes for all stakeholders becomes their primary objective. They justify the profit maximization attitude by “giving a portion back to God.” The error of such thinking is that we cannot give back to God what is already His.

What Would it Look Like for You to “Surrender All” in the Area of Finance?

“Surrender All” should inspire greater generosity:

Instead of calculating to the penny a 15% tip for your waitress, start with rounding up to 30%, recognizing that most waitresses would benefit from the blessing of a generous tip. Reflecting God's generosity through our financial decisions exemplifies true stewardship and aligns with the principle of surrendering all to Christ.

“Surrender All might joyfully give the first fruits:

Consider giving away not only the highest appreciated stock in your portfolio but also the stock with the greatest future potential.

“Surrender All” might redirect savings:

Let go of money set aside for personal purposes (a new car, a vacation, a home remodel) and instead deploy those savings via a donation or investment into a project that will advance God’s kingdom.

“Surrender All” might be consider exploring a few below-market (“concessionary”) investments:

Consider investing in a lower-than-market-return opportunity focused more on ensuring underlying employee flourishing occurs than investor return maximization.

“Surrender All” encourages ethical investments:

Sift out investments that profit from worker exploitation, addictions, profane entertainment, or jeopardize the rights of the unborn. A Christian should be as concerned about how profits are made as they are about how much profit is made.

“Surrender All” strives for holiness in all we do:

Recognize that God’s holiness must extend to our portfolio to achieve His eternal purposes.

Reflect on Your Financial Stewardship 🤔

Do you have a “surrender all” attitude when it comes to matters of finance, investments, and stewardship?

Consider these words from Judson Van DeVenter:

All to Jesus I surrender, Humbly at His feet I bow

Worldly pleasures all forsaken, Take me, Jesus, take me now

I surrender all, I surrender all;

All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

Donald Simmons, CFP®

Don has over thirty years of experience building and managing a boutique investment firm in upstate New York that he founded in 1988. A CFP® Professional with a degree in counseling and post graduate training as a portfolio asset allocation specialist, Don fuses professional portfolio strategy with investor psychology and behavior to provide a well-informed perspective on our role as Christian steward-investors. With nearly a quarter billion dollars of assets under management, his firm consistently ranks among the top 1% of financial advisor practices in the United States.

Being a fiduciary of his clients’ assets has enlightened Don’s understanding of our role as God’s “oikonomos”—His designated asset managers. Additionally, Don believes that business itself is an incarnational witness, much like the ministry of Young Life through which Don began his own personal relationship with Christ and with which Don has been involved as staff, volunteer, and committee chair for over four decades.

While serving as chief operations officer for a London-based Christian economic development fund, Don observed firsthand the great chasm between societies where capital is hoarded in abundance compared to locations where it is in short supply and desperately needed to fulfill God’s redemptive plan. Don was responsible for coordinating a global management team that deployed dozens of mentors and coaches and financial capital to transformational businesses across more than twenty countries and among the most impoverished communities in the world. Furthermore, as he has traveled extensively both personally and professionally to dozens of frontier market countries since 2003, he’s gained an awareness of the physical and spiritual poverty that are too often met with ignorance and apathy of American Christians regarding their plight.

Don’s passion for meeting these needs through the expansion of business as mission, as well as being a long-time steward of his clients’ assets, has led him to not only help his clients prepare for retirement, manage their wealth, and consider charitable giving, but also to help investors match their investment decisions to God’s purposes.

Don has been married to Amy since 1989. Their home is a hub of activity for their four children and a steady stream of guests. In addition to family, Don’s passions include flying an antique (1948) seaplane, cooking pizza in his wood-fired pizza oven, and serving as a board member for numerous charities.