Thursday, April 9, 2020

April 8, 2019 - Surrender, Freedom and Abiding

“Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, who we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest.” Hebrews 3:1

“To fix our thoughts on Jesus is to close our eyes. To mark this moment by declaring our trust in God. To declare out loud to God, ‘Not my will but Yours be done.’ To stop fixating on the circumstances raging around us. To stop trying to make sense of things that make no sense in the middle of the journey. And to stop asking for the knowledge that’s too heavy for us to carry.” - Lysa TerKeurst

The other day, a friend of mine shared about three words - surrender, freedom and abiding. They all go so well together - when we surrender to God, we have a freedom that only comes from giving control to Him, and we can abide in that freedom.

The picture that I have is the relationship of a child and parent as God intended it. The child has a freedom that comes from “surrendering” to (submitting to the leadership and care of) the parent. The parent protects the child from harm, teaches the child and doesn’t burden the child with things that are too heavy for him to carry.

That is what God wants to do for us! He wants us to give up control and to trust Him.
I know without a doubt that is what He is asking me to do with my circumstances, but the same is true no matter what we are facing. We really can do that. Give the burden to Him and trade it for JOY. And this isn’t a one-time thing. It is an every day (or hour - or minute) process. It is how we abide in Him. Giving our worries to Him and trading them for His peace and joy.

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