WEEK FIVE: QUIET MY SOUL

Children are some of the most trusting people on the planet. When my kids were small, they pretty much trusted anything I told them to be possible and true. This is primarily because what I told them (or what I said I was going to do) were things that I could actually make happen. Because as a parent, I want the best for my kids. I want to see them succeed. However, as we grow up and watch the world around us, we tend to become much more skeptical and untrusting of those around us. So everything we are involved with now has to come with the caveat of wondering if we can trust that we will not get hurt or fail if we participate. Then when, as Christians, we hear that we are to surrender our lives to God, we can become skeptical there too.

The root problem with surrender is pride. We get into the mindset that surrender is negative, that somehow it takes all our power of choice away…but it is just the contrary. We are still responsible to make good decisions. But this becomes easier when we can lay aside our pride and genuinely trust in God’s direction and timing. There is a peace in that.

So, why is it so hard for us to surrender? I believe that in our culture, the idea of surrender carries the connotation of failure. If I surrender, I somehow have failed at whatever it is that I am supposed to be doing. It carries with it this idea of giving in, as well as giving up. There is a sense of loss (or losing) in it, and I have to admit defeat.

But surrender to God is not losing. It is not admitting defeat or giving up. It is trusting our lives in humility to a loving God who wants nothing but the best for us. Giving our lives over to God frees us from worry. It reduces our stress, and it increases our confidence. It is just like that unrestricted trust of a child to their parent. We know God has the best in mind for us. We have seen him come through in the past and therefore we can trust him today.