Sweet surrender

I am beginning to see a pattern in the journey God is taking me on. When trials arise, he beckons me to the glorious pasture of surrender. "It's a beautiful place", the Holy Spirit reminds me-a place where praise songs bubble out of your heart, where you dance on the head of the enemy and where peace pipes burst open into a monsoon shower.

When we surrender to God's will, it's an act of worship. It brings God glory and us peace. When we surrender, we choose to recognise (with God's help) that we don't have to fret about what unfolds in the future. When we surrender, the enemy can't taunt us anymore as we have completely laid it all down and said to God- "Daddy, appacha (Malayalam word for dad/grandad), your will and your plans and your wisdom are the best and I am safe in you. I trust you Abba."

Isaiah 40.28 says "God's understanding is unsearchable". Not even the best or biggest search engines man may develop can search his infinite wisdom. We rarely understand the circumstances he allows in our lives but he is worthy of our trust.

The journey to the pasture of surrender may sometimes be easy and enjoyable (like a summer stroll in Richmond park) but most times, it is long and gruelling (like an uphill cycle ride on a cold and wet winter day, where you can barely see through the piercing rain or feel your hands).

The journey is often not over when we reach Surrender, because our hearts tend to run off into the playground of doubt and enjoy playing on anxiety swings and going down the slides of fear.  

Its in those times that I find it helpful to echo prayers in the Bible like 'I believe;  help my unbelief' (Mark 9.24), or 'my heart and my flesh may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever' (Psalm 73.26). 

My response when I go through hardships is far from pretty. I am saddened to say that the words and attitudes I take to God in my exhaustion and confusion are painfully vile. When I discovered Psalm 73, a few years ago, I was overjoyed. Verses 21-22, gave words to the experience I was going through and helped me see that I am not the only one who responds to God like this when I go through trials. It says- 

When my heart was grieved
    and my spirit embittered,
22 I was senseless and ignorant;
    I was a brute beast before you

Can you relate to these words? The words that follow are pure balm to our aching hearts because it speaks of a God that even in our brokenness and brutishness, draws close to us and aids us- 

Yet I am always with you;
    you hold me by my right hand.
24 You guide me with your counsel,
    and afterward you will take me into glory.

Isn't it a relief that God is still kind to us even when we are depleted, exhausted and prone to give up? 

 

Psalm 84 says that even though we go through the valley of Baca (weeping), the truth is that we grow "from strength to strength" on our journey with God, to God.  

Hey, next time we meet, I will be a stronger Asha than I am today. I would have grown six pack abs spiritually-haha! And you- you will be stronger too! Take heart, because "though our outward selves are wasting away, our inward selves are being renewed everyday". 

So wherever you are, let me encourage you to choose surrender, choose trust and choose praise. Let us praise God even for the trials. Let us praise God even when we dont feel like it as an act of defiance, as a sacrifice. 

And don't be disheartened- God is kind- he gives us strength for this choice to surrender, he gives us the family of Christ to lift our hands, the Holy Spirit himself is groaning on our behalf and Christ Jesus is interceding for us every day!.

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• "For our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"

• "Not my will but yours be done" (Jesus's prayer in the garden of Gethsamane)

• "Blessed are those whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion." Psalm 84.5-7 

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