Give It Up!

Just this past week, I had to recenter my focus, and so I decided to re-surrender my life to God. It is such a humbling experience knowing that I am not in control of my life and that I am dependent on Him in everything that I do. I've said this from the jump, I am not perfect. There are times when I find myself like "🤔 what in the actual 🤬 are you doing?" and I have to ask God to pull me to the front of the congregation.

There was a time not too long ago that I thought that sacrifice and surrender had the same meaning. However, according to Wikipedia:

Sacrifice: the offering of food, objects, or the lives of animals or humans to a higher purpose [God] ... as an act of worship.

Surrender: to completely give up one's own will and subjects his/her thoughts, ideas, and deeds to the will and teachings of a higher power [God].

So full transparency, I've realized that I have control issues 😂 and for all y'all who know me personally and are giving me the side-eye, cut it out! But I legitimately have moments where I opt to do things myself because I think I can do 'it' better. What I've realized is that in some cases, I can be a pro, but in my relationship with God it's a huge red flag, on my part. He won't put His hands on something if I won't allow Him to have full control. Does that make sense? Yes, there are moments when He wants me to 'move', but in the moments that He's saying He got it just relax, now that's a different story. How is He going to bless me with the favor to bless others, if I have my hands on the reigns steering people off of a cliff? Doesn't make sense right?

One of the Bible plans that I just finished reading, "The Secret Joy of Living a Surrendered Life", says "when we surrender ourselves to God, we worship Him ... our surrender is our worship". The common misconception some of us have myself included, is that we're doing God favors. It's not about boasting about what He did for us, OR what we're doing to thank Him. It's about the one on ones that you have with Him.

"God opposed the proud but shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time."

1 Peter 5: 6-7

If you ask me, most of us run from fully giving our lives (ie. decision-making, stressors, successes, relationships, etc.) to God, because we're scared, or we want to take the credit for what's happened, even when we know His hand involved. As human beings, we are naturally selfish, and we want to figure it out on our own. But the great part of being under His control is that once we submit to Him, he shows us favor. It may not 'magically' manifest in front of our eyes, but just knowing that He has brought you this far when we didn't deserve it is enough to believe that He will bless you tenfold, once you give him your all.

Let Go & Let God!