surrender

Have I mentioned my current favorite devotional?

https://skyejethani.com/with-god-daily-devotional/


My small group of women are each on a journey.  We have very different lives and seemingly different issues.  As we meet weekly to share and study a book we picked up; we've been (I've been) dissatisfied with the depth of the study we chose.  After 3 weeks, I found myself convicted of my complaining.  If I wanted more depth, my Bible is right there in front of me.  I can always ask God to reveal more to me.  Or... perhaps God wants me to focus on just what is before me.  Am I seeking to feed my pride through some great revelation or understanding I've not had before?  Because pride is a constant companion in my life.  

So I slowed down and looked at what I could glean from the study.  In Acts, comparing Peter and Paul's lives.  My first thought is yada yada yada, been here, done that.  I went through the homework actually being sarcastic at some of the questions asked in the book.  "Really?  That is what you're asking me?"  So I went back over my answers and saw something ... surrender.  They surrendered their lives to the will of God.  LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE IT MADE IN THE WORLD!  Not just in their own lives, but the world.  Jesus built His church on their lives, their witness, their teaching.  How amazing the idea of surrender is.  

Am I brave enough to truly surrender?

So I shared with our little group.
The next day I read my With God Daily devotional.  It was on love and culture.  God's people were slaves and exiles attempting to live Godly lives stuck in pagan lands.  Then we look at Jesus' incarnation.  The difference is He chose his engagement.  He chose to come down to us and engage, to be a servant, to live with us.  Even in the face of rejection, hatred and murder.

That made me think.
I need to surrender without expecting the other people in my life to behave properly.  My surrendering isn't the ticket to getting what I want or having my problems solved.  Surrender is the role Christ had and it's the role I have.

It's hard.  I'm a fighter.  I think sometimes the greatest battles are won by not fighting back.  God is bigger than these issues.  If we need to rest and recuperate I believe God makes space for that in our lives.  Yet we are called to love, regardless of where we are.  

Where is God calling me to surrender?  Where might God be calling you to surrender?