The Struggle Isn’t Knowing—It’s Surrendering
The Struggle Isn’t Knowing—It’s Surrendering
The struggle isn’t always discerning God’s will. Sometimes the struggle is surrendering to it.
We want God, but we want Him our way. We want Him, but we don’t want to have to give too much up for Him. We want to obey Him, but only when obedience aligns with what we already want. When following Him becomes difficult, costly, or inconvenient, we often stop short, not because we don’t know what to do, but because we don’t want to do it.
We want the blessings and favor that come from following God while still holding on to parts of our old life. We want to take what fits and leave the rest. Over time, this creates a version of faith shaped more by our preferences than by God’s commands.
That’s exactly what stood out to me while reading 2 Kings 10 and 12.
Jehu: Partial Obedience Isn’t Obedience
In 2 Kings 10, Jehu becomes king of Israel and, in obedience to God, destroys all Baal worship throughout the land. In verse 30, the Lord tells Jehu, “You have done well in carrying out what is right in my eyes.” But immediately after this praise, we see that his obedience was incomplete. Jehu removed Baal worship, but he left the gold calves at Bethel and Dan. Though he obeyed God in many ways, he stopped short of full obedience.
2 Kings 10:31 goes on to say, “Jehu did not obey the law of the Lord, the God of Israel, with all his heart.” He was willing to surrender some things, but not everything. His story reminds us that God desires wholehearted obedience, not partial surrender. We cannot be content with giving up nearly everything while holding onto even a small area of sin. Partial obedience is still disobedience.
Joash: Convenience Can’t Replace Obedience
Jehu wasn’t the only example. In 2 Kings 12, we see another king who followed God but fell short of full surrender. Scripture tells us that Joash did what was right in the Lord’s sight throughout his life, yet even so, he did not destroy the high places.
God had already given clear instructions. In Deuteronomy 12:13–14, He commanded His people to offer sacrifices only at the place He chose, later revealed as the temple in Jerusalem. But the high places were more convenient than traveling to Jerusalem. As 2 Kings 12:3 says, “The people still offered sacrifices and burned incense there.”
The Israelites were still worshiping the true God, but they were doing it on their own terms. Rather than fully surrendering to God’s instructions, they chose what was easier and more comfortable, and the high places remained in use. Joash’s decision left in place what God had already told them to remove.
They rearranged God to fit their lives instead of rearranging their lives to fit God. In doing so, they blended preference with obedience and created a version of worship that operated on their terms rather than His. Once again, we see that partial obedience is not obedience at all, it is disobedience disguised as devotion.
Obedience Can’t Be Selective
This is what happens when obedience becomes selective instead of total. Over time, it creates a custom version of faith, one shaped more by our preferences than by God’s instructions.
It doesn’t look much different today. We see it all around us: people following Jesus while holding tightly to one thing they refuse to surrender—areas like anger we hold on to, unforgiveness we refuse to release, gossip we continue in, or habits we won’t surrender. The specific sin may be different, but the heart issue is the same. We are willing to give God most of our lives, but not all of it.
The danger is that the longer we leave sin unchecked, the more room it has to grow. What starts as one area of compromise slowly spreads into others, pulling us further away from God. We may tell ourselves, “It’s not that big of a deal,” or, “I’m doing so many other things right,” but the stories of Israel remind us that partial obedience never leads where we think it will.
This doesn’t mean we are called to perfection. We will all fall short. But it does mean we should regularly examine our hearts. Is there an area of my life that I am refusing to surrender? Is there a conviction I keep minimizing or ignoring because I don’t want to give it up?
Staying close to God, reading His Word, and talking to Him keeps our hearts sensitive to His voice so that obedience is not something we debate, but something we surrender to.
This is Not a Knowledge Problem
While reflecting on these passages, I realized this wasn’t just something I saw in Israel, it was something I recognized in myself.
There was an area of my life where I knew what God was asking, but I wasn’t fully surrendering it.
I wasn’t confused about what God wanted. I wasn’t struggling to discern His will. The struggle was surrender.
I knew what God was asking. I resisted it. And I still acted on it.
What I needed was not more clarity. It was surrender.
The Question That Remains
At the end of it all, the question isn’t whether God has spoken clearly. The question is whether we will surrender when He does. He is not calling for partial obedience, but for our whole hearts.