Sweet Surrender

God's been challenging me this summer.  Actually, He and I have had a few wrestling matches. Through these spiritual wrestling matches, I've learned one thing ... He. Will. Always. Win.  Why do I resist?  Why do I think that my ideas and thoughts are better than what He has planned?  When will I ever learn to trust Him?  I'm human.  It's in our human nature to want our way.  To fight for the right to be heard, to be right, to do things the way we want them done.  I'm not making excuses; I'm simply stating a fact.

This summer, Bronie and I have been spending time together doing Jennie Allen's Bible study “STUCK: the places we get stuck and the God who sets us free.”   I have had this study on my shelf, collecting dust, for over a year now.  Every now and then,  I'd take it off the shelf and look at it, knowing that I needed to start it but never did.  Finally after a conversation with BV, we decided that we would start.  It looked like an innocent enough study, BUT after watching (with tears rolling down my cheeks) the intro video, my heart was pricked.  Was it too late to back out?  I thought, "Uh, BV, I can't do this!  I'm tapping out.  Good luck with the study."  But I knew in my heart it was exactly what I needed.  Over the last few weeks, I've had to analyze myself.  (Do you know how uncomfortable that can be?) And through this process, God has called me to surrender.  I have had to surrender so many areas of my life; my thoughts, my worry, my anxiety, my family, my everything to Him.  That is hard for someone like me who has major trust issues.  He even challenged my to surrender that, too!  All of these things had become a security blanket for me.  If I could worry about it, then in my mind, I had control over it. 

Surrender is a daily process.  Just like making wise choices about the things we eat, read and listen to, we have to choose daily to surrender to God.   If we chase what the world deems right and good, we will lose ourselves.  As Christians, when we let Jesus lead us, we find ourselves.  We can't ride the fence on this.   It's a choice we have to make daily - do we let Him lead us or do we do our own thing?   When we surrender to God, we stop resisting Him.  And it's in the moment of sweet surrender that we find freedom.  FREEDOM!!!  Freedom from this world's idea of the best life.  Freedom to be who we are created to be.  Freedom to trust God with everything.  Freedom to live the life God wants us to have.  Freedom to embrace life to the fullest.

I love the way The Message puts it in Matthew 16:24-26: "Then Jesus went to work on his disciples.  'Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how.  Self-help is no help at all.  Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.  What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself?  What could you ever trade your soul for?'"  He is in the driver's seat.  He knows where we are going, and He knows how we are going to get there.  

Embrace life to the fullest,

Stefaney

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