The story behind the Surrender Paintings by Amber Block

Only to You	A Thousand Surrenders

I was young when I committed my life to Jesus Christ. And that’s good, because I needed a lifetime of experiences with Him to convince me to stay surrendered as an adult. A monumental crisis in my marriage forced me to revisit that first moment of surrender in a visceral way. At the height of this crisis I was driving over a bridge and an overwhelming wave of despair washed over me. I so badly wanted to quit. I was tired. I was hurt. I was uncertain of the future and I questioned my assumptions of the past. I looked over the edge of the bridge and thought how easy it would be to surrender to my circumstance and end all of the pain. The crossroad was clear before me. I could surrender to my circumstances, which were real and very adult, or I could surrender to the Lord, as I had as a child, and trust that He would lead me through the painful darkness. In either case I knew I was going to surrender. Praise the Lord I chose Him and His promises! I kept on driving.

The paintings “Only to You” and “A Thousand Surrenders” are an expression of the crossroads and a visual representation of the choices we all make. The first painting, “Only to You” was painted as a direct response to my experience on the bridge. The situations had not improved in my life, and the storms were still all around me, but I firmly and stubbornly planted my white flag and asked the Lord for the strength to surrender only to him. After I completed this painting, I realized that surrender, for a follower of Jesus Christ, is an on-going action of faith. Situations continue to arise in my life that require my complete surrender and trust in Him, in His wisdom, in His power and in His timing. Over the course of my life, I know there will be a thousand surrenders. But it starts again with the one right in front of me; this day. The Holy Spirit has taught me that He is more real than the situation, He is truer than the circumstance and He is more stunning in His intensity than even my deepest heart-cry. I surrender because I have this certainty: “the LORD (my) God is God; he is the faithful God.” (Deut. 7:9)