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klsiegel320Point to Ponder: The heart of worship is surrender.
Verse to Remember: Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. --Romans 6:13b (TEV)
Question to Consider: What area of my life am I holding back from God?
The author is certainly right about one thing: surrender is not a popular word, and it certainly is associated with capitulation, with giving up, with giving in, with compromising one's truth...all manner of things that I don't think are meant by surrender to God.
Surrender is a way to describe what I did when I trusted that there was a place out there for me, that I would come to it eventually, that I would know it when I came to it. That spring and summer were very much my Exodus from Egypt (and anyone reading this who knows anything about my time at Wit(less)co will know exactly what I mean).
It's what we do when we admit we're not God and that maybe it's better if the one with the map and the directions is allowed to be the one driving the bus. It's also - oddly, paradoxically, ironically - the one way to discover who we truly are, who we are truly created to be.
Not everything that happens may be pretty. That's the part I especially don't like. Letting God drive doesn't mean nothing will ever be bad. People will still do what they do, and sometimes what other people do may be harmful, to themselves or to me, or both. That's the secret: we weren't in control of what those people do or do not do, even when we thought we were in charge. So why not admit we're not in charge?
When I'm trying to run things, I get so involved in trying to control everything and so frustrated and frightened when I can't, that I'm incapable of acting freely, lovingly, or generously. I'm too busy being domineering and pushy. I'm too busy being afraid of what may happen if I give in and stop trying to control everything.
All that will happen when I do that is that I'll be able to find who I truly am, allow others to be who they truly are, and accept whatever happens and try to find the grace of God in it.
As to what aspect I'm most likely to be trying to control for myself, well...that's probably my husband's health. See notes about controlling what other people do.
Verse to Remember: Surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. --Romans 6:13b (TEV)
Question to Consider: What area of my life am I holding back from God?
The author is certainly right about one thing: surrender is not a popular word, and it certainly is associated with capitulation, with giving up, with giving in, with compromising one's truth...all manner of things that I don't think are meant by surrender to God.
Surrender is a way to describe what I did when I trusted that there was a place out there for me, that I would come to it eventually, that I would know it when I came to it. That spring and summer were very much my Exodus from Egypt (and anyone reading this who knows anything about my time at Wit(less)co will know exactly what I mean).
It's what we do when we admit we're not God and that maybe it's better if the one with the map and the directions is allowed to be the one driving the bus. It's also - oddly, paradoxically, ironically - the one way to discover who we truly are, who we are truly created to be.
Not everything that happens may be pretty. That's the part I especially don't like. Letting God drive doesn't mean nothing will ever be bad. People will still do what they do, and sometimes what other people do may be harmful, to themselves or to me, or both. That's the secret: we weren't in control of what those people do or do not do, even when we thought we were in charge. So why not admit we're not in charge?
When I'm trying to run things, I get so involved in trying to control everything and so frustrated and frightened when I can't, that I'm incapable of acting freely, lovingly, or generously. I'm too busy being domineering and pushy. I'm too busy being afraid of what may happen if I give in and stop trying to control everything.
All that will happen when I do that is that I'll be able to find who I truly am, allow others to be who they truly are, and accept whatever happens and try to find the grace of God in it.
As to what aspect I'm most likely to be trying to control for myself, well...that's probably my husband's health. See notes about controlling what other people do.
