One of the things I've been thinking about a lot lately is surrender. You may have heard the old hymn, "I Surrender All"..."all to Jesus, I surrender, I surrender all." About a week ago, I sang a new song. I don't remember the name, but I wrote down a few lyrics that seemed to bore their way right into my heart. In my journal I posed the following questions to myself:
1. Can you abandon your heart to God?
2. Can you truly say, "all I have is yours"?
3. Can you surrender all to God?
If I abandon my heart to God, if I freely give him all I have, if I completely surrender myself to his will, then that means all of the desires of my heart, all of the plans from my life, all of my hopes and dreams need to be left on the altar before him. Everything I want to achieve needs to be let go of so that I may pick up and carry the desires of God's heart for me, the plans HE has for my life, the hopes and dreams HE has created for me when he knit me together in my mother's womb.
"For I KNOW the plans I have for you...." God says through Jeremiah. "...plans to give you hope and a FUTURE." The problem for me comes when that future is not part of the future I had envisioned for myself. When God says no to my plans, it stings a bit. And I stubbornly cling to what I want to achieve rather than open myself to what God would have me achieve.
We live in a culture that thrives on ambition and the desire to achieve. Be the best. Work hard. Gain wealth and status. Compete. Dominate. Like anyone else, I want to be successful. I want to have a thriving career, to be respected in my field, to accomplish things and to have some financial security. Yet, interestingly enough, God seems to want something different. I can't help but think back to Micah 6:8. What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Walk Humbly....Surrender All. I think the two are bound together. To walk humbly with God is to accept the desires, plans, dreams he has for your life and to follow him, freely, wherever than may be.
Blessings and Peace,
Sara
1. Can you abandon your heart to God?
2. Can you truly say, "all I have is yours"?
3. Can you surrender all to God?
If I abandon my heart to God, if I freely give him all I have, if I completely surrender myself to his will, then that means all of the desires of my heart, all of the plans from my life, all of my hopes and dreams need to be left on the altar before him. Everything I want to achieve needs to be let go of so that I may pick up and carry the desires of God's heart for me, the plans HE has for my life, the hopes and dreams HE has created for me when he knit me together in my mother's womb.
"For I KNOW the plans I have for you...." God says through Jeremiah. "...plans to give you hope and a FUTURE." The problem for me comes when that future is not part of the future I had envisioned for myself. When God says no to my plans, it stings a bit. And I stubbornly cling to what I want to achieve rather than open myself to what God would have me achieve.
We live in a culture that thrives on ambition and the desire to achieve. Be the best. Work hard. Gain wealth and status. Compete. Dominate. Like anyone else, I want to be successful. I want to have a thriving career, to be respected in my field, to accomplish things and to have some financial security. Yet, interestingly enough, God seems to want something different. I can't help but think back to Micah 6:8. What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Walk Humbly....Surrender All. I think the two are bound together. To walk humbly with God is to accept the desires, plans, dreams he has for your life and to follow him, freely, wherever than may be.
Blessings and Peace,
Sara
Thank you. You hve said so well what has been runnng through my head that past few weeks. I really needed to read this this morning.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post. Thank you again! It's kinda like you're my own private devotional book. ;-) You could publish all your posts as a devotional. You get right down to the heart of the matter. It's what we need!
ReplyDelete-FringeGirl