Surrender With Hope

How can we surrender with hope? Surrender often carries the stigma of being a failure, a loser. 

On the other hand, there is a surrender that is far from bad, or a sign of losing. 

A primary consideration is, who or what are we surrendering to? 

Surrendering to a maniacal dictator who threatens our life on all levels is worth resisting, but surrendering to a benevolent leader, is a different story. When we wrestle for control, attempting to protect ourselves, we seldom understand that we are essentially taking the place of our Creator in our lives. 

Our God has good plans for our lives, and He communicates those abundant promise for love, hope and healing. Surrendering to someone with those qualities should feel safe.

We also surrender with hope when we surrender to our Creator, because of His ability to turn situations for good.

By faith we surrender to His perfection, and that is how we tap into God’s strength and wisdom. Once we stop trying to control things that are out of our control, and that were never intended to be in our control, we give God permission to redeem us to His perfect purposes.

I invite you to sit with Psalm 103 for a few minutes. Here are a few questions to prime your thinking.

• If I am going to surrender to anyone, why should I trust the God of the Bible?
• What is unique about how the God of the Bible sees us? 
• What qualities of this God are most inviting to you today?

Please take a breath and take your time, journal what you learn. Return later to go deeper. I always enjoy hearing from you and what touches you.

Abba, 

Give us grace to receive what You want to say to us. Thank You that You are both willing and able to speak to each of us as unique individuals. We surrender with hope to sit with this psalm for a while. 

¹ Let all that I am praise the Lord;
    with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
² Let all that I am praise the Lord;
    may I never forget the good things he does for me.
³ He forgives all my sins
    and heals all my diseases.
⁴ He redeems me from death
    and crowns me with love and tender mercies.
⁵ He fills my life with good things.
    My youth is renewed like the eagle’s!

⁶ The Lord gives righteousness
    and justice to all who are treated unfairly.

⁷ He revealed his character to Moses
    and his deeds to the people of Israel.
⁸ The Lord is compassionate and merciful,
    slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.
⁹ He will not constantly accuse us,
    nor remain angry forever.
¹⁰ He does not punish us for all our sins;
    he does not deal harshly with us, as we deserve.
¹¹ For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
¹² He has removed our sins as far from us
    as the east is from the west.
¹³ The Lord is like a father to his children,
    tender and compassionate to those who fear him.
¹⁴ For he knows how weak we are;
    he remembers we are only dust.
¹⁵ Our days on earth are like grass;
    like wildflowers, we bloom and die.
¹⁶ The wind blows, and we are gone—
    as though we had never been here.
¹⁷ But the love of the Lord remains forever
    with those who fear him.
His salvation extends to the children’s children
¹⁸     of those who are faithful to his covenant,
    of those who obey his commandments!

¹⁹ The Lord has made the heavens his throne;
    from there he rules over everything.

²⁰ Praise the Lord, you angels,
    you mighty ones who carry out his plans,
    listening for each of his commands.
²¹ Yes, praise the Lord, you armies of angels
    who serve him and do his will!
²² Praise the Lord, everything he has created,
    everything in all his kingdom.

Let all that I am praise the Lord.

This is an adaptation of my August 31, 2017 post