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WHISPERS TO AND FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT

Help My Unbelief

God, I lose my peace
when I stop trusting you.
No matter where I am
or what I am doing,
if I do not trust you,
God, I am not at peace.
When I stop trusting you,
I then take over and do
things on my own,
working so hard at life
and what I think needs
to be done. It is as if
I say to you, OK, Lord,
let me take over because
I am not sure where you
are going with my life
and where ever that is,
you are not taking me
there fast enough. So let
me work at it myself.
Dear Lord, what folly
for I know in my heart
that it is only in you, by
you and with you, I can
live, give and get out of
life what you want for me.
Forgive me, Lord, for my
lack of trust and help
my unbelief

Dr. Don’s Reflections

You would think by now I would have it down. You would think I would be totally convinced that God knows what is good for me, where I need to be, and where I need to go.  The only thing that works with God is total and permanent surrender. He wants nothing less. To be honest, I have had difficulty with that during my life.

I like to think I have surrendered to God, but I have taken it and given it back so many times.  It seems I will let God go just so far and then I say, “OK, God, I will take it from here” only to give it back to him after I screwed things up.

Because of this “give and take” in surrendering to God, I have one purpose in life and that is to surrender to God.  Does that mean I think I will do that before I draw my last breath?  I doubt it. But I am OK with I will die trying.

The truest love I have known is the love of God, a love that surpasses all understanding. The fact that I have yet to totally surrender to God also passes all understanding for one would think after walking with him for all these years it would be easy. 

But then I think of Peter, the Lord’s chosen head of the church-going from denying Christ to dying for Christ.  And then there are the many other Saints who denounced Christ only to get to the point where they dedicate their lives to him. That gives me hope. Hope that I too will get to where my every breath is committed to my creator and that commitment to him is in total surrender to his love and care.  I know I will get there and when I do I pray I will never retreat from it

Dr. Don’s Comments

Surrender for the most part in our world is a bad thing. To many people and I am sure to you also, surrender most likely means to lose. You feel surrender means you have tried and failed. However, when we talk about you surrendering in your walk with God it takes on a new meaning. It is victorious and all the trumpets in heaven are sounded.

Surrender in the face of God is a win.  It is you saying, “Dear Lord, I have tried to control my life and the life of others but it never got me to where I wanted to be. And if it did, get me where I wanted to be it was not the place I thought it would be.  To surrender to God most people have to feel helpless and hopeless at least that is the way it was with me.

When you feel helpless and hopeless, there is a realization that you do not have the control over your life that you thought you had and that there is a force (God) much more powerful then you that calls the shots. You can continue to believe you have control or that you can get control and live a life of hell or you can give up realizing how helpless and hopeless your situation is, that is a  life without God in control. 

Christ is after you. They do not call him the “hound of heaven” for nothing.  Once you say, OK, God, you take over you will soon after realize surrender to God is a process and not a one-time event.   You may have to do it over and over but that is OK because for most people it is a lifetime process.

Your first surrender maybe would be you saying to God, “I am not sure what is going on here, but I have a general belief that you can get me where I need to go and be better at it than I am so I surrender to you. Please forgive me for all my sins and take me into your trust” It is in seeking God’s forgiveness that you will find the strength to fully surrender.