“What is true surrender? A person may yield to a stronger person, or an army to a stronger army. We may yield to God because he is almighty, or because we fear his judgement. None of this is full surrender. Only if we experience that God is good- and that he alone is good- is it possible to yield our whole heart, soul, and being to him willingly and unconditionally, and out of love. My father once said about this:
It is hard to describe how we are stripped of power, how it must be dropped, dismantled, torn down, and put away… It is not easily attained and will not happen by means of a single heroic decision. It must be done in us by God. Yet this is the root of grace: the dismantling of our power. And only to the degree that it is dismantled can God work in us, through his Holy Spirit, and construct his holy cause in us…”
Excerpt from Freedom From Sinful Thoughts by J. Heinrich Arnold
Saint Joseph Men of Integrity Group 