The Terrifying Art of Surrender

image credit: https://ashesandbeauty.wordpress.com/2012/07/26/let-go/

I don't know about you, but New Year's Day was unimpressive and uneventful.

I woke up - still feeling crummy from the sickness my family continued to pass around.

The dishes were still piled high in the sink, spilling over on the counter.

Christmas was still up.

The laundry was still as it was the night before - a big hot mess.

Nothing had changed.

Everything was the same.

Including me and all of my habits - good, bad, or otherwise.

WHAAAT?!?!?!

2017 was supposed to bring change - to me. But nothing had changed except the calendar.

Feeling slightly a whole lot discouraged, I happened upon these words:

"Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert."

~Isaiah 43:18-19~

Well hello there words for my moment of self-pity and sorrow...

I was quickly reminded that I am a being of action - and I am to act in obedience and surrender to my Lord. I am not meant to hold on to the past. I am not meant to be in control, but instead to lay down my life to the One who is "doing a new thing" - to the One who "makes all things new" (Revelation 21:5) - to the One who makes me a "new creation" in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). 

Obedience and Surrender are words that are sometimes difficult to even utter. The actions they require are so much more than actually taking control and doing something yourself. It means we have to actually give up control and then hang on and follow and try to keep up - often times having absolutely no idea where you are going or what will happen next. It can be both terrifying and exhilarating! But mostly terrifying...

God tells us through the prophet Isaiah that He "will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert". Let those promises soak through to your core. "I, the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of All Things, the Alpha and the Omega, I Will Make A Way in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desert". 

Are you wandering in the wilderness right now? Are you panting in desert? 

Is God asking you to lay something down in surrender to Him, trusting that He is "doing a new thing" in you?

For me, I have been running. This is not new. It's an old story, in fact. It's so old I'm actually tired of sharing it. But, as is my trend, I found myself running on New Year's Day, just as I had been running the day before - fleeing from my calling and submitting to my fears and failures. I have been running from myself and from Him. And I'm exhausted. But the fear of fully surrendering and trusting what is unknown is too much - and so I muster up just enough to run for another day.

But on New Year's Day, when the devastating reality hit me, that I was continuing to run, my heart was arrested by the tender and gentle words of the Lord. It felt as though my Father was speaking directly to me.

Lisa. My precious and chosen daughter. Do not be afraid. Do not continue to linger in the past. But instead, look and see, I am doing something new in you, can't you tell? I will clear a path for you in your wilderness and will sustain you in the desert. Trust me. Your surrender is a gift to you from me.

(my paraphrase from Isaiah 43:18-19)

Loitering in our past failures and defeats will overwhelm us and haunt us 100% of the time. It is time to give it up and give them to God. In Him we find healing and rest and comfort that our past will never provide.

We get to relinquish control. We must look at surrender as the gift that it is and allow the healing our God offers to move us forward and out of the pit we are content to wallow in. It's time to let it go and watch Him move in, through, and around us.

We may not have found the change we desired on New Year's Day, but we can offer ourselves to the One who is "doing a new thing," and I promise, you will wake up one day and realize that in Him, you have been changed into a "new creation!"