Sanctification Through Surrender: Allowing God to Shape Us
Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. (2 Timothy 2:21)
When we’ve experienced trauma in our lives, it can be challenging to move forward and find healing. However, as believers, we have the opportunity to surrender our past wounds to God and allow Him to shape us through the process of sanctification. By opening our hearts and entrusting our pain to our Heavenly Father, we invite Him to work in us and transform us from the inside out.
Surrendering our trauma is not about forgetting or minimizing the impact it has had on our lives; rather, it’s about releasing it into God’s capable hands and allowing Him to use it for our growth and His glory.
As we embark on this journey of sanctification through surrender, we discover the freedom and peace that comes from letting go of our burdens and embracing God’s love and grace. In this article, we will explore how surrendering our past trauma to God can lead to profound healing, renewed strength, and a deeper relationship with our Creator.
The Cyclical Nature of Sanctification
When we talk about sanctification, we’re referring to the ongoing process by which God transforms us as believers, making us more holy and Christlike in our character and actions. It’s a beautiful work of God’s grace in our lives, where He purifies us and sets us apart for His purposes, gradually shaping us into the image of His Son.
In the New Testament, the Greek word for sanctification, “hagiasmos,” comes from the root word “hagios,” meaning “holy” or “set apart.” It’s important to understand that sanctification isn’t a one-time event but a continuous, lifelong journey that starts the moment we accept Christ as our Savior and continues until we’re finally glorified in heaven.
The amazing thing about sanctification is that it involves a cooperative effort between God and us. While it’s ultimately God who sanctifies us, we have the responsibility to actively pursue holiness and obedience to God’s Word. This means putting off our old sinful nature, renewing our minds through studying Scripture, and putting on our new nature in Christ.
As we go through this process of sanctification, it progressively impacts every aspect of our lives — our thoughts, attitudes, words, and actions. It’s not about achieving perfection in this life but about consistently growing in Christlikeness and deepening our relationship with God.
So, when we think about sanctification, let’s remember that it’s the incredible, God-ordained process by which we, as believers, are gradually transformed to become more like Christ. It’s about God setting us apart for His purposes and helping us reflect His holiness in our daily lives.
Sanctification Through Surrendering Past Trauma
When we surrender our past trauma to God, we invite Him into the depths of our pain and allow Him to work in our lives in a profound way. It’s a step of faith, trusting that God’s love and grace are greater than the wounds we’ve experienced. By releasing our burdens to Him, we open ourselves up to the healing power of the Holy Spirit, who can mend our broken hearts and restore our souls.
As we begin this journey of healing, we may find that surrendering our trauma to God is not a one-time event but an ongoing process. It requires us to continually lay our pain at the foot of the cross, trusting that God is working all things together for our good and His glory. Through this process, we learn to rely on God’s strength rather than our own, and we discover the freedom that comes from letting go of the weight of our past.
This is where I found myself this week, as the Lord has been taking me through the process of removing another layer of the trauma onion that continues to take up space in my soul. When we experience trauma as a child, the pain and betrayal of the situation are often too much for our tender souls/minds to process (which is the very definition of trauma), so we repress the memory or bury it to allow us to go on with life as though it had never happened.
This is what I did with a particularly painful memory from my past…I buried it. In the work I am doing now to reclaim my body from the abuse of my past, the Lord has shown me that this particular memory that I buried decades ago is contaminating my whole system, much like trying to bury toxic waste.
You might think I would be eager to get rid of this toxic waste in my system after all these years, but I found the struggle to surrender it rather surprising. I buried it so deep that I cannot remember it at all, even though I know it is there. When you experience ongoing sexual abuse, there is always a first time. I have been content, up to this point, to NOT remember it, and if the Lord did not put His finger on it, I would not be doing this.
I have enough experience with this process to know that when the Lord puts His finger on something in my life, He is doing it for my good and to remove obstacles that are in the way of our relationship. Still, that knowledge doesn’t make the surrendering part any easier.
The Lord doesn’t rip these things out of our hands; instead, He patiently but insistently waits for us to surrender them to Him. While I have resolved in the depths of my soul to follow God and surrender this to Him, the tactical implementation of this decision has proven difficult. Even though I got closer this week, I could not get there.
A traumatic memory is not stored in the same way as other memories. It becomes shattered (corrupted and broken in pieces) because its file size has exceeded our processor’s storage capacity. Part of it is stored in our procedural brain so we can tell “what happened.” Part of it is stored in the emotional brain. Part of it is stored in the body as data relating to the senses. Part of it is stored in the sense-making part of our brain.
Surrendering this memory to Him requires me to dig up all those parts so they can be properly processed and moved to long-term memory. It also requires me to “take them back.” There is still a part of me that does not want to remember, which is totally understandable. The challenge is not the procedural memory of what happened; it is facing the emotional memories that have been difficult.
As I ponder what emotions are contained in this lockbox of my mind, it has dawned on me that this is my Garden of Gethsemane moment. It is the moment of struggle before facing the betrayal that is certainly coming. I am not alone in this struggle because my Lord struggled with this surrender, too.
“Then He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.’ He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You [will].” (Matthew 26:38–39)
This is exactly how I’ve been feeling this week and my Lord knows all about that. He understands my struggle to surrender because He experienced it, too. I needed to see this today so I would know that the struggle to surrender is real and that He totally understands what I am going through.
This is true for all of us. As we surrender our past trauma to God, we allow Him to use it to shape us into the image of Christ. Our pain becomes a tool in God’s hands, refining us and helping us grow in empathy, compassion, and dependence on Him. Through the process of sanctification, God takes the broken pieces of our lives and transforms them into something beautiful, using our story to bring hope and healing to others.
Ultimately, surrendering our past trauma to God is an invitation to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised us. It’s a journey of healing, growth, and transformation that draws us closer to the heart of our Heavenly Father. As we allow God to work in us and through us, we find that our past no longer defines us, and we can step into the future with hope, purpose, and joy.
The Journey Continues…
The sanctification process is a journey of a lifetime. God never stops developing us into the image of His Son until we die and are transformed in the twinkling of an eye. He is a patient teacher. He is never in a hurry.
And so, for me, the journey continues…I expect some difficult days ahead, but I also anticipate more healing and emotional freedom in the future. I look forward to seeing the Lord work and how He will be able to use me once this burden no longer takes up free space in my brain. Can you picture what is possible with me? I can.
Wherever you are in this healing journey, please know that He only requires you to take the next right step…one step at a time. Slow progress is still forward progress. We’ve got this because God’s got us.
