Surrender to Love: Discovering the Heart of Christian Spirituality (The Spiritual Journey)

Having read David Benner's later books first; all three of them make a good group, It just worked out that way for me and I loved them all. Desiring God's Will, The Gift of Knowing Yourself, and this one, Surrender to Love make a great trio. I am able to confirm with him that his writing is the truth. I now feel now I am on on a first name basis in that same experience of God's unconditional love. As His Love was filling my lost empty heart I could hardly believe it was happening, but it was. I am so grateful to God for touching my heart. It was and remains to this day, 38 years later, still such a uniting JOY, I KNOW from my own personal experience the JOY in sharing that same experience. Now we know both God and neighbor as well.I know that David's experience also confirms me. It will do the same for you as well; just confess to God completely who you really are, hold back nothing, empty the false you and receive from Him Life Eternal. Good News; it is true, It really is. Praise God. Perhaps the most revealing truth, so well covered in this beautiful book, is this; it is not in our own righteousness that we come into transformation, but rather it is in our brokenness,in our realization of emptiness. We can call upon Our Lord, not in a spirit of bargaining, but rather with our confession, with our broken and contrite heart. We are in no way deserving of the unconditional love of God.;As such, when He came to me, it was sheer JOY that I experienced, as His Love was filling my aching and empty heart. Now I just want to only be what He wants me to be. I am His and He is mine. We are connected unto God by His Love and neighbor as well in Christ Jesus our LORD and SAVIOR. That requires death to the natural inner man first, then and only then can anyone assume as the Gift of God, our true self in Him. 1st Corinthians 6:17.There are not enough words to express my Joy in knowing God, not just about Him. There is no easy way, only by sharing in His death in an experiential death with Him, are we able "tot", not an error, tot really is a word, and in this case used as ( movement towards God as a small child ) as we really begin to know Him. This book is a classic. 5 star+, Read it until you understand the truth written therein.

This is a very easy to read book even though I had to read some of it over and over to be able to grasp what he was saying. Some I didn't grasp but it uplifted me to such a level I will read it again.

Benner perfectly marries Biblical exegesis, Spiritual Direction and Psychology in making the strongest case for the reality that God smiles when the Father thinks about any of us.

I think this is an important book for all Christian believers to read, and it has a lot of very meaningful, very deep truths about the nature of identity and the transforming power of God's love. My one concern, however, is that the author does not ever seem to refer to Jesus's teaching from Scripture that "You must first be born again...." In other words, in order to really experience God's full measure of divine love and forgiveness, Scripture teaches that we first need to be adopted as His children, by grace through faith. That way, our sins are truly wiped away. Instead, the author seems to be saying that God's love and forgiveness is equal for everyone, no matter whether they have faith in God or not. I don't see that in Scripture. If I am missing something from the book, please let me know. Otherwise, if you can overlook this one apparent omission, there are some valuable insights in here that are hard to find elsewhere.

Highly recommend. Knowing God and knowing about Him are very different things and this book will help you truly know Him.

We often hear the word love used in many different contexts. “I love hamburgers!” “I love the color blue!” “I love my family!” ”I love my church!” What is the true definition of love and how does surrender come into play with this definition? Upon the recommendation of a friend/mentor, I read the book Surrender to Love by David G. Benner. When I started this book, I honestly didn’t know what to expect as I had never heard of the author.The book is a trilogy of sorts (the second book being The Gift of Being Yourself and the third book being Desiring God’s Will). In Surrender to Love, Benner discusses the concept of Godly love and how the ultimate surrender (the death of Jesus Christ, God’s only son) provides this love for us. We have a tendency to believe that God loves us based on our merits…if we do well then God loves us more…if we don’t do well morally then God doesn’t love us as much. This concept has caused many a people to fear God in an unhealthy way.To read my review in its entirety, go to: [...]

The love of God, shown by Him coming down to us through Christ Jesus, is The source of this author's love for people.I was touched by the few people who were willing to share their brokenness, and how the author patiently and lovingly encouraged them to reconsider faith in the Lord Jesus and His Father.I like the fact that he didn't write a self-improvement / self-help book, as we can't do it ourselves. We have to (re)surrender to Love.

Love this series!! Really gets you thinking about relationships between God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and yourself. These are some of my favorite books for inner reflection and how to find, build, and move my relationship with the Lord. Not to mention these books help greatly with Bible study of the Word of the Lord, meditation, and prayer.

Don't really know how to describe this, but it is deeply challenging in the most positive sense of the word. It makes me want to move more and more into God and his love for me.

J'ai adoré ce livre. J'ai toujours été un peu réfractaire à ce thème de l'abandon (ou surrender) et là c'est vraiment une approche totalement différente et qui donne vraiment envie.C'est vraiment concentré sur l'amour de Dieu pour nous et comment il fait tout pour nous le démontrer.A nous ensuite de l'accepter.Cela a vraiment changé mon image de Dieu une fois de plus.C'est également très bien analysé, très bien vu d'un point de vue intellectuel. Le style est agréable.Bref je recommande vivement!

My counsellor recommended this book many years ago but I didn't pick it up till now. That was too bad. It would have really helped me a long time ago. The author is wise and experienced. He speaks to the core of some of our fears in letting ourselves be loved by others and by God. It's well worth the read. I'll be rereading this and sharing it with others.

Practical, challenging and profound - this book has helped me at a time in my life when surrender to love became the only option. It’s a book I suspect I will have nearby for reference for the rest of my life, I have already bought it for someone else.

Wow. What a great book. I read a lot of books by Christian authors and I think this is the only book (other than the Bible) that I immediately knew I needed to read again. David Benner gets to the heart of a real relationship with Christ and why at a psychological and spiritual level what Jesus called us to works. Every person who wants to follow Jesus should read this book. It will change you and you're desire to spend time with God and really know Him will increase.