“God often takes a different route than the one we expected; but the destination is better than we dreamed!” - Susan Rodgers
A few weeks ago I shared on my social media that I was privileged to speak at my mom’s annual conference that my home church continues to host in her memory. What I did not share was what I spoke about: The Journey with Surrender.
“For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God. And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.”Isaiah 41:13 NLT
Journeying with surrender. It could be described as riding with a blindfold on. Although it sounds scary, I’ll bet you that you’ve already done it before!
I said, I’ll bet you have already surrendered on your journey before! Whether it was surrender to your fears, surrender to lies, surrender to generational issues, surrender to complacency, or surrender to defeat...you’ve certainly surrendered before. This is good news, because it means that you possess the ability to surrender to God when you’re ready.
When I first started blogging, I shared about my perfectionism and tendency to worry. This was often as a result of not being able to trust that God would come through. Overtime, this morphed into anxiety. I have managed it well, so I didn’t see a problem with it. But I was challenged about this. I have found that I have no problem trusting God FOR specific things, but not IN all things.
There is a distinct difference between trusting God FOR something, and trusting IN God...period. The former suggests that after you have received whatever it was you were trusting God for, you return to your default setting of trusting only what you can see. It is as menial as trusting hired help to do their job. Once the job is complete, our business here is done. No relationship necessary.
This is similar to only being thankful to God for something, but not being thankful IN all things. (Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.” 1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT)
But trusting IN God requires intentionality, relationship, faith, and…surrender. It won’t come by accident or happenstance. There is a level of intimacy, peace, and contentment that can only be achieved by trusting IN God.
But what if I trust in Him and He doesn’t come through? That means your trust was in the outcome, not in Him.
But what if I get hurt while trusting Him?
“God is relational, not transactional. He wants to walk with you through the pain, not just make it disappear.” - Lecrae
Simply put: Want to worry less? Trust more.
The new post notification woke me up Saturday morning. Considering I also had several other emails, this was the only one that awakened me. I knew it was for a reason so I conceded to start afresh with what enters my mind by the blog and not the work load and unnecessary clutter of junk mail. Great, but Godly insisted way to move today in a surrender to ALL and not some. I take direction and proceed accordingly. Thanks. Excellent read.