Best Christian Books on Surrender: 12 Classics to Read Free
If you read one book on surrender, read Andrew Murray's Absolute Surrender. It is nine short addresses, about three hours in all, and the first one is the heart of it. Murray takes a strange text, a defeated king's words "I am thine, and all that I have," and makes them the words every Christian should say to God. Then he says the thing that makes surrender possible: God doesn't ask you to do it in your own strength. He is willing to work it in you.
The old writers meant something definite by surrender. It is giving yourself to God completely, with nothing held back: your will, your plans, your money, your time, your reputation, the people you love. They called it consecration, yielding, or "laying all on the altar." They taught that many Christians are saved but unhappy because some part of the life is still kept back. And they insisted that surrender is not gloomy. The life God takes, He keeps, fills with His Spirit and uses.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
Here are twelve of the best books on surrender in TheWay Library, all free to read.
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1. Absolute Surrender, by Andrew Murray
The title address, then eight more that apply it: love as the proof of the Spirit, Peter's denial as the end of the self-life, and Christian workers as branches who have nothing of their own.
God does not ask you to give the perfect surrender in your strength, or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you.
Absolute Surrender, Address I
See our summary of Absolute Surrender and what absolute surrender means. Read Absolute Surrender.
2. Kept for the Master's Use, by Frances Ridley Havergal
Havergal's last book, on her own hymn "Take my life, and let it be." She changes each line from "take" to "keep" and asks what it means for our moments, hands, feet, voice, lips, money, mind, will and love to be kept for Jesus. It answers the fear many people have after a moment of surrender: will it last?
Whatever you did really trust Him to keep, He has kept, and the unkept things were never really entrusted.
Kept for the Master's Use, chapter 1
See Who Was Frances Ridley Havergal? Read Kept for the Master's Use.
3. The Surrendered Life, by J. Wilbur Chapman
A short book, about an hour, written for young people. Chapman uses Jacob's night of wrestling at Peniel to show the believer who knows something stands between him and God, and how surrender brings the breaking of the day.
There must be something between you and God if you are not at rest and filled with peace.
The Surrendered Life, A Midnight Struggle
4. The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, by Hannah Whitall Smith
The best-known book of the whole "higher life" movement. Smith says the secret is full surrender and simple trust: our part is to give ourselves up and trust, and God's part is to do the work. She is at her best in the chapters on difficulties, especially the one on the will, for people who have surrendered but feel nothing.
It is not the feelings of the man God wants, but the man himself.
The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, Difficulties Concerning the Will
See our guide to Hannah Whitall Smith's books. Read The Christian's Secret.
Surrender and the self-life
5. The Master's Indwelling, by Andrew Murray
Thirteen addresses that go further than Absolute Surrender. Murray names the reason so many prayers for a deeper life go unanswered: the self-life is never denied. Then he points to waiting on God, death with Christ and Christ's humility.
The reason why Christians pray and pray for the Christ life to come in to them, without result, is that the self life is not denied.
The Master's Indwelling, The Self Life
6. A Castaway, and Other Addresses, by F. B. Meyer
Ten addresses in the spirit of the Keswick conventions. The ones on the will matter most for surrender. Meyer says you are not what you feel but what you will, so surrender is an act of the will, whatever your feelings are doing. "Marred: So He Made It Again" is for anyone who thinks they have spoiled their life past mending.
We are not what we feel or think, or wish, but what we will.
A Castaway, and Other Addresses, The Substitution of the Christ-Life for the Self-Life
See Who Was F. B. Meyer? Read A Castaway.
7. Quiet Talks on Power, by S. D. Gordon
Why do so many Christians have so little power? Gordon's answer is choked channels and an unsurrendered self. The chapter "The Price of Power" gives the picture people remember.
In every heart there is a cross, and a throne, and each is occupied. If Jesus is on the throne, ruling, self is on the cross, dying.
Quiet Talks on Power, The Price of Power
8. Quiet Talks on Following the Christ, by S. D. Gordon
Gordon pictures the Christian life as a road Jesus walked first, with a main road of power, valleys of suffering and hilltops of gladness. The way onto the main road is full surrender to Jesus as Lord.
There will need to be the initial act of full surrender to the Lord Jesus as Lord indeed, for most of us have been going another way than this.
Quiet Talks on Following the Christ, The Main Road
See Who Was S. D. Gordon? Read Quiet Talks on Following the Christ.
The surrendered life day by day
9. Steps into the Blessed Life, by F. B. Meyer
Twenty short addresses. The first is "The First Step into the Blessed Life," and the step is full surrender to Christ. The rest follow it into daily life: guidance, separation, money, Bible reading, and Meyer's own Keswick testimony.
The circumstances of our daily life are to us an infallible indication of God's will, when they concur with the inward promptings of the Spirit and with the Word of God.
Steps into the Blessed Life, The Secret of Guidance
Read Steps into the Blessed Life.
10. The Life of Blessing, by J. Wilbur Chapman
Thirteen talks taken down at a Bible conference in Dayton, Ohio, in 1899. They build to the sixth, "The Crisis," a call to settle the question of surrender once for all. Plain and earnest, close to how Chapman sounded in person.
It is not a question of what I am, or what you are, but whether you have submitted to God.
The Life of Blessing, What Manner of Persons Ought Ye to Be?
11. Separation and Service, by J. Hudson Taylor
A short Bible study on Numbers 6 and 7. Taylor reads the Nazarite vow as a picture of a believer set apart to God, and the princes' gifts for the tabernacle as a picture of willing giving. From the man who founded the China Inland Mission, it carries weight.
Our true self-denial, self-emptying, and giving for Christ's cause practically show our real estimate of the value of the Cross of Christ, our real love for the Christ who was crucified for us.
Separation and Service, Princely Service
See Who Was Hudson Taylor? Read Separation and Service.
12. Lessons from the Life and Death of D. L. Moody, by R. A. Torrey
Torrey worked beside Moody for years, and after Moody's death he drew twelve lessons from his life. The first is what God's grace can do with an unpromising, uneducated boy who gives himself fully to Him. A short read, about an hour.
Faith gets the most, love works the most, and humility keeps the most.
Lessons from the Life and Death of D. L. Moody
See Who Was D. L. Moody? Read Lessons from Moody.
How to read these books
Read Murray's first address in one sitting, then stop and do what it asks. Havergal is good to read alongside her hymn, a chapter at a time. If you have surrendered before and it didn't seem to "take," read Smith on the will and Meyer's A Castaway.
Surrender is closely tied to obedience and holiness. See our guides to the best books on obedience, the best books on holiness and the best books on the Holy Spirit. More of these authors are on their pages: Andrew Murray, F. B. Meyer and S. D. Gordon.