Surrender

Surrender. This has been an over-arching theme in my life; the strands of which have been woven through books, scripture, Bible studies, women's retreat, video series, worship, sermons, spoken sentiments and so on.

Have you ever had the feeling like God was trying desperately to communicate with you, and moreover wanted your complete attention?

Unlike an exhausted mother's smile, head nods and occasional 'uh-huhs' directed toward a child who seeks her undivided attention, God isn't fooled by our meager attempts of going through the motions. Case in point, Isaiah 29:13:

And so the Lord says,“These people say they are mine.

They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.

Ouch! If I am being at all honest, I have to admit that I was convicted by this scripture. How many times has this been true in my life? How many times have I become distracted and taken my eyes off of Jesus only to settle for the less-than of this world?

Yet, all of my inadequacies cannot erase this simple truth:

I. am. His.

So, what does the God of the Universe want?

EVERYTHING. All that I am.

And how is this accomplished? By willingly surrendering all of ourselves to Him daily, until the habit takes root in our lives and hearts, then we surrender some more!

One of the biggest hurdles to completely surrendering ourselves to Christ is fear (I'm not talking about fear of the Lord here). Fear, when given a foothold in our lives, squashes our hope and weakens our faith.

Another way fear is so debilitating is when we forget God's favor. A story that illustrates this beautifully is found in Exodus 15. The Israelites were just rescued from slavery and witnessed God's power firsthand with the parting of the Red Sea. Shortly thereafter as they were in the Desert of Shur, they couldn't find water. When they finally arrived at Marah, they couldn't drink the water because it was bitter.

Did they trust in the Most High God? No! They complained. God showed Moses a piece of wood and turned the water sweet. Here's the ironic part: Marah was next to Elim, an oasis with twelve springs and 70 palm trees!

How many times have I been so caught up in bitterness that I have missed the 'Elims' God had for me?

So, in this season, God is teaching me to:

Reflect (forgetting God's favor leads to paralyzing fear and lack of faith)

Exalt (I will exalt God, my strength and salvation)

Surrender (it's an ongoing practice of willingly giving myself over)

Trust (I will trust Him in all circumstances, even if that means having to do things afraid)

Did you catch the acrostic above? I just did.

REST.

Yes, God desires to give us rest. You see, the more that we give, we are given infinitely more!

For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

~Zephaniah 3:17

**This blog post is lovingly dedicated to my sweet kindred spirit, Amy, whom encouraged me to keep writing. xo