There has been confusion in the church regarding the biblical teaching on commitment and surrender. Some have gone so far as to say that surrender is the more godly thing and commitment is more out of human effort. Well, it is true that without surrender, commitment is meaningless but to commit myself and all that I have to the Lord is an act of surrender in itself. Surrender means to let go but God is also asking us to use all that we have, for His glory and therefore, to commit ourselves is a practical out working of our act of surrender. Romans 6 is very helpful here where we see that we are called to yield ourselves to God AND the members of our bodies to righteousness. Both surrender and commitment are presented here and it seems to be a natural out working in each other. We are exhorted to surrender our life to Him but Paul goes further by demanding an evidence of that surrender which is manifested by committing our body to acts of righteousness and not to evil. True surrender demands a life long commitment to His ways.
