God wants more than your commitment

In our spiritual journey, many of us grapple with the concept of commitment to God. It seems straightforward, yet it can lead to confusion and frustration. In this post, we explore the fundamental difference between committing to God and surrendering to Him, sharing insights and scripture that illuminate this crucial aspect of our faith.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hi everybody, you're listening to the People Get Ready Podcast. I'm Heather Duff, and in just a minute, we'll be jumping into a conversation with Barb Ho. We're talking about everyday issues from a Christian perspective while we eagerly wait for Jesus. People get ready.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Let's go. When you think about the Christian walk, we are not called to commit to God. And that and I know that sounds kind of crazy, but we're not called to commit. God wants us to surrender. And I have such a tendency to commit and to do what I need to do. And you know, when I looked it up, commitment is an agreement or pledge to do something in the future. It's an agreement to do. And I think the optimum word there is to do. But to surrender is to yield to the power, control, or possession of another. To commit is to an agreement to do something, but to surrender is to give up that agreement to do something. It's they're they're really opposite. When I was studying a word this morning and having my time with the Lord, and God was really ministering into my life about this, because when things are not going the way that I think they should be going, what I tend to do is to want to dig my feet in and be more fervent about it and to do more and to make more of a commitment to it, and you know, to to do it. And yet when I come before the Lord, God is speaking into my heart so much lately about surrendering, surrendering to the Lord. Some of the some of the verses I looked up, I looked up a bunch of verses this morning on what it means to surrender, what the difference is. And some of the verses that God brought to my mind was the one that we all know, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, and all your ways submit to him, and he will make your path straight. Another one is 2 Corinthians 12, 9 to 10. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weakness and insults and hardships and persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. And even as I'm reading it, I'm choking back tears because the essence of what God has constantly speaking into my life is that Barb, you're not made to be strong. You're made to be weak. I haven't called you to be strong. I've called you to be surrendered. Philippians 4 13 says, I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength. So, you know, the thing that I'm constantly being reminded of, and I want to just talk about it today and how we do that and how this is lived out in our lives as Christians is our dependency for everything has to be on God. God doesn't call the equipped, he equips the called, right? So when God calls you to do something, he calls you the way you are. You're not at a certain place and then God calls you, he calls you just as you are. And then after he calls you, he enables you, he pours his presence into your life. He enables you to do what you are called to do. It's not because you're able, it's because as you surrender and depend on him to do it, his Holy Spirit works in you to do what he has called you to do.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Living in the power of Christ's resurrection, looking at my own life, and can I say that about the life that I'm that I'm living? Can I say that I am fully living in the resurrection power of Christ? And it's his life in me and not my own life. I'm glad that we're gonna talk about this today. And it's it's been my prayer to really understand and to live out what that what that means.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Yeah, you know, when you really consider, and the more I study scripture and the more I grow in my relationship with Christ, I realize more and more how this is essential. I mean, this is our foundation. Our foundation. And when you think about what is living in the power of the spirit, right? And I mean, we want to, people say, I want to live by the power of the spirit. I want to, I want to live in the resurrection power. But what does that really mean? And what it means is more of Christ and less of me. What it means is coming to the place in your life that you say, I can't do it. I can't do this. I can't do the life that I want to live, I can't live it out. The ministry that I want to live out, and the effect I want to have on people, and the impact I want to have on people, and everything that I need that I want to do, that I'm so burdened to do, I am not able to do it. I am a sinful, lacking, imperfect person who battles so many things, and yet God is able to work above and beyond anything that I've ever asked or imagined. And the key is all in the understanding that it's not what we do. It's not committing to God. It's not saying, okay, I'm gonna do it this year. I'm gonna do it, you know. I'm I'm gonna get my back against the wall, I'm gonna do it. No, it's coming before the Lord and saying, God, I want this. This is what I want. I want to live this life out, and I can't do it, but I want to do it. Would you live it through me? Would you enable me through the power of your Holy Spirit to live out the desire that I have in my heart? And that that that's what it all comes down to, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:44

Yeah, this is a quote from Andrew Murray in his book Absolute Surrender, but it's really a question. It says, How much Christian work is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self, how much work day by day in which human energy, our will, and our thoughts about the work is continually manifested and in which there is but little of waiting upon God and upon the power of the Holy Ghost. And I mean, to be honest, you know, a lot of times I could describe myself as as weary, you know, and it's because I I recognize that I am guilty of this. I do so much of what I do in my own and even the the good things that I do, I realize that there is such a great like exercise of my will to do it. But my will is puny, you know. So I am praying to God uh that I would really have a revelation of what this means because I know that doing it this way, it it does weary you, you know, it it wears you out. And because, like you said, we're not meant to live this Christian life in our own power. That would be impossible.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

I totally, and that's a great quote, by the way. No wonder this man was blessing in so many lives. What a great quote. But um, you know, I think it gets even it gets even more, I guess it's simple in some ways and complicated in other ways. You know, the simple truth of it is just let go and let God, right? First of all, it's it's a lot of times driven by a good desire. I mean, you want to live for the Lord. I mean, you want to do these things for God. You you have things in your in your heart and your mind that you really want to live out. And I think another thing that really battles, and I know this was something that Danny, my husband, he dealt with, and he, the Lord really brought him to a place of surrender in his life. And because he was a very capable person, he was very able to do things, and he had a lot of capabilities, and he really struggled. And he talked about this, especially in you know, in the later years of his life, how he really battled letting God do it through him and trusting God to do what he even what sometimes he thought he could do. No, it's not even that our lack, we can't do it. It's sometimes we can do it, you know, especially some of us. I mean, some of us may be gifted in things and able things, and we have these abilities, and so it's easy to depend on those abilities instead of saying, God, you know, I I don't want to depend on my ability. I mean, that's not saying I'm nothing, I'm garbage, I can't do anything. That's like saying everything that I have, everything that I'm able to do is garbage without your anointing. And so I'm even bringing my my gifts and my abilities and my talents and whatever I have, and I'm giving it to you and I'm asking you to work through them. And you know, when we do that, first of all, we're working through the power of the spirit, which is, I mean, no matter how able we might be to do certain things, how much more effective is it going to be when the spirit is doing it through us? It's not even in the in the same league, you know. But I think another thing is is it keeps us humble. It keeps us from the place where we really do depend on our own understanding. And we just walk in the power of the Holy Spirit and and that understanding that it's all God, it's all God working in me.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

I just wrote the word pride in all caps and put a a box around it even before you got there when you summed that up. Because it's so sneaky. Pride is, you know, you don't realize, but anytime you're leaning on yourself, that really is coming from a place of pride. Living in an understanding of our weakness is a very uncomfortable place to be.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

It's hard. The Bible talks about that as being a blessing. I mean, it says, I delight in weaknesses. I mean, when's the last time we've delighted in weaknesses, you know? And what does the world tell us? And what do we say in ourselves when we're when we lack something, when we're weak in something, we try to make it better, right? We try to work and and see, that's what I want to talk about, the logistics of this, because this doesn't mean that you don't try to do anything, right? And I'd like to talk about the logistic way of doing this and what it literally means and how do we do it? Because that's not to say I sit back and I say, Well, I can share the gospel, but I'm just gonna depend on God to do it. I'm not gonna prepare for it, I'm not gonna do anything. That's not saying that. That's saying it's it's talking about dependency. How what do you think about that, Heather?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Yeah, well, I think even the language that Paul uses very often, he writes, I want you to understand how great a struggle I have on your behalf. Um, and then he says things like that he strenuously works. And so it's you know, that is a really tricky thing to understand how to be in a place of complete and utter surrender and yet strenuously work in the power of Christ in you.

SPEAKER_00 10:44

I think one thing is key, something that we've talked about and we talk about every time, and I'm gonna talk about every time. A lot of it depends on our time with the Lord. Because if we are not coming and surrendering these things to the Lord, it was as I come to the Lord, and even and honestly, this morning the Lord was speaking this into my into my heart. And that's why I shared when I was reading some of those verses, I was choking back tears because God had been ministering into my life this morning and saying these very things and saying, Barb, you need to surrender this to me. You need to trust me that I'm able to do it, that you might or might not be in your own strength, but I'm the one that wants to do it through you. I'm the one that wants to work. You know, and if I don't spend time with the Lord, if we don't spend that time with God, that altar time, that time in studying his word, that time in just intimacy with the Lord every day, we're going to be walking in our own understanding. It's just a fact. We're going to be doing things and our motivation might be right. It might be that we want to, you know, be ministers for God, but if we're not walking in the power of the Spirit in that, in that time spent with God, it's not going to be fruitful. It's not going to be right.

SPEAKER_01 11:52

I get the sense that there is a whole other level of life and service for Christ that is at my fingertips, you know. Like I I understand myself and I know when I am working in my limited power. And that's not to say that I'm stuck in a rut. But I don't know, you know, when I read the scripture, it just calls me to come up higher. And that is what I desire. And I think it's true what you're saying. I mean, the more time I spend in prayer and in God's word, I'm thinking of Philippians 3, uh, 12. It says, not that I have already obtained it or I've already become perfect, but I press on that I may, and I love this, that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. In that verse, it just underscores that God has a purpose. You know, it's not, it's not me striving to accomplish my goals. But my goal now has become that I want to lay hold of Christ and so that everything that He's laid hold of me for, He will accomplish through my life. And I just need to continually remind myself that it's not about me setting goals and having achievements and even, you know, whatever good things I may do. I could do all of those good things and yet not exactly lay hold of the thing for which Christ laid hold of me. And only he knows what that is. I can't, I can't attain that in my own understanding.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yeah, absolutely. It's one of my favorite stories in in Exodus 14 when the Israelites were fleeing Egypt, and you know the Egyptians were hot on their trailing, and they got to the place where they were faced with the sea, and the and the Egyptians behind them, and they were in this terrible dilemma. And um, verse 15 says, Then the Lord said to Moses, Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on, raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry land. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they go in after them, and I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all of his army through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians, Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen. But the funny thing is God is saying to Moses, stop crying out and take the step, right? Stop crying out and take the step. But it's preceded by Moses saying to the people in 13 and 14, Moses answered the people, Do not be afraid, stand firm, and you will see the deliverance of the Lord that he will bring today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. And so I thought, you know, there is a time when we just stand, and there's a time when we step out. There's a time when we cry out, surrendering to the Lord. It doesn't mean stopping things. It doesn't I talk to people that they believe that waiting in the Lord is just like, I'm waiting on God. And I'm like, okay, you know, there's a time where you need to just go. So let's talk about like how do we know when those times are that God wants us to like, like the you know, the Israelites, God wants us to stop crying out and start stepping out. How do we know that and surrender to Him? How can we recognize that?

SPEAKER_01 15:14

First, let me say God didn't ask them to do this amazing thing. It was just take a step, you know, and I and I think that's one big thing. A lot of times we have in our mind that it's it's this huge thing, but really it's just to be faithful in that that one step that's right in front of us, as you're saying. So I think spending time in the Word, growing in the understanding of who God is and time in prayer. We need to um be consistent in the things that we know that we should be doing. We may not know what to do about that particular situation, but the word of God is filled with so many things that we can do, even things like put on love, put on compassion and kindness. We can be saying to ourselves, oh, I I'm waiting on God, and then we're treating people wretchedly because we're miserable, because we're having to wait on God. Instead of that, we can pursue God and do the things that we know that please him and and live for his good good pleasure, and just obeying what he says and seeking out what good that we can do, not to try to fix things ourselves, but to humble ourselves and to just be obedient to the things that we know he's already told us to do. What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Yeah, yeah. And I think the thing that comes to my mind the most is just the issue of faith. And and that's that's when I think about this whole thing of surrender versus commitment. Why do we want to commit? Like, why do we want to commit? And I think because we feel like we have more control. It's an issue of control, right? We feel like we have control if we're doing something. If I'm doing something, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it, right? And there's something about releasing the control and just surrendering to God. And you know, I think about James, I forget the exact reference where it talks about if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives generously without reproach. But when he asks, he must ask in faith, believing, right? The key is when we surrender to the Lord, there has to be that foundation of saying, okay, God, I could fall on my face here. This is what, this is what I, and I'm trusting it into your hands. I'm giving it into your hands. I I think it's similar in some ways in the Old Testament, why they kept building idols, right? God would say, Don't build any idols, just trust me. And what would they want to do? They would want to have these idols where they could feel, they could see, they could touch. You know, that an idol was important to them. And I think when we come to a place in our lives where we say, God, I don't want to depend on what I can do. I don't want the control anymore. And it is going to take faith because I'm surrendering to a God I can't see. You know, I'm surrendering and I'm believing that you're going to guide me and the steps that I'm wanting to take, like maybe it's something in the future that God is laying on your heart to do. And it's not making sense at this point, or you don't see how it can happen at this point, but it's just something that God is laying. So rather than, you know, committing to do whatever you can do to it, just to surrender it to the Lord and say, I trust you to work. If this is what you want me to do, I trust that your grace is going to lead me in the direction I need to go. And faith has got to be the foundation of it. If you don't have faith, you're not going to trust God. You're going to try to do it in your own capabilities.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

And that makes me think about what we're doing right here, even this podcast. You and I talked about this for months, if not, I don't know if it was years, but at least a year. Yeah. And I mean, we, of course, we both prayed about it. And at times we were like, should we start now? No, timing doesn't seem right. But it was a step of faith. It is stepping into the unknown. How do you explain faith?

SPEAKER_00 18:55

I think that for me, faith is believing that God, God is God. I think faith is saying, okay, God, you are God, right? This situation, this this burden, this desire, this everything I have, humanly is impossible. But I'm, but you are God. It's just there's a foundation. And it's not even, I think people try to hype up an emotional thing, right? A whole you know, positive confession thing. You can't say negative, you have to be positive. I think it's just a deep awareness, it's a deep understanding that God is God and He is going to work, and He is able to do it. And I think that's the thing with us when we when we talked about it. And you know, I just I share in that. I mean, we we went back and forth with this for for weeks and months, and and even now we're saying, God, are we doing this right? Are we, you know, are is this what you would have us to do? And is there something else you want us to do? Is there, you know, whatever? And we're constantly asking the Lord, but with surrender, we say, your grace is greater than my lack. Okay. The grace of God, the mercy of God, the ability of God, the faithfulness of God is greater than everything that that I lack, everything I'm not able to do. And, you know, if if it's something that God wants to change your direction in, he's God. He's able to do it. He will, he will do it. If our hearts are right and we're surrendered, we're much more moldable. We're much more moldable in his hands. And we're like that clay that, you know, is able to be molded in the direction that God wants it. When a vessel is a is surrendered in the hands of God, it is unbelievable what God can do. I mean, think about the great heroes of the faith. They were surrendered to the Lord. Some of them were capable, some of them weren't. Some of them God worked through their capabilities, others he worked through their incapabilities, you know, their their lack of things that God worked, but it was their surrender and and their trust that God was able to work. And I I think that that is just the key of surrender.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

We put so much pressure on ourselves to know things that only God knows. And we're not going to know those things in advance.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

But the Spirit does work through proddings. I mean, he's given us emotions, and that's not to say that our emotions lead us, but does God work through our emotions? Yeah, he does. I mean, that's one way, of course, together with accountability to others, according to the word. But when God wants you to do something and you are surrendered to him, you're just going to get a sense that this is what he wants you to do. And that's where faith comes in again. Because that's where you say, God, I'm human. I could hear the wrong thing, but you're God. And you know what? If I'm not hearing this right, I trust that you're able to work it together for good, even through that. I know that you know, you're able to take this situation that I'm thinking of stepping out and to mold it into a direction that I That is different if this is not the direction you want me to go to. Why? Because you're God, because I'm surrendered to that. And it it's like we become like a flowing water, you know, in the hands of God. And these are the times that we learn the most about who God is. I know that, and I shared the last time about what I went through when Danny died, but I've had to live this principle of surrender to God a million times in my life since then. Because, like I shared, I had to face so many things in my life that I was not capable of doing. I literally wasn't. And so I I couldn't get committed to, okay, God, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna make sure I do this. I I I I couldn't do it. I surrendered. Now, after I surrendered, he would lead me to take steps, he would lead me into what to do. But the cart didn't go before the horse. The horse was first. And and I acknowledged to the Lord, I I need to take care of this and I don't know how to do it. I don't have the capability of doing it. And as I surrendered to him, he guided. But that foundation underneath has got to be God's grace is greater than my lack. No matter what I'm facing, he is more able to guide, to redirect, to direct, to do whatever that overshadows any lack that I have.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

God deserves our full surrender. I don't say to God, I'm gonna half surrender myself to you. I don't say that, but in effect, that's that's what I'm I'm doing if I'm not fully surrendered. Um, Andrew Murray makes the point in his book that all creation is absolutely surrendered to God. The sun, the stars, the grass, the lilies of the field completely surrendered to God, the creator. And he's given man a will. And we choose, at some point, we will all be surrendered when we come face to face to him. But while we're here on this earth, we have a free will to choose. If two people are holding a pen, what's going to get written there? Two people can't be in control of the pen. And God works in our absolute surrender, and he's worthy of that. If my life was only God's and not my own, how would it look? How would it be different than it is now? It looks too much like mine and not enough like his. And that's I've been asking myself that question.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

How do we do that? You know, how how do we do it? Like, you know, some of the stuff that you're talking about, I think one of the things that we have to do is to take our thoughts captive. A lot of times it's the perspective. And I think if if people people like myself and others are are are struggling with how do I do it? Okay, I'm recognizing that I'm walking in a direction of commitment instead of surrender. I'm trying to commit, I'm trying to do what's right in my own ability instead of surrendering on the Lord. What do I do? Well, what I would begin with is I would begin with surrendering it to the Lord and just coming before God and saying, God, change my heart. Help me to help me to see the areas in my life where I'm because everything begins in your thoughts. Everything begins in your mind. That's why the Bible talks about taking those thoughts captive, because if it begins in the thoughts, and then those thoughts get lived out in our lives. And so what we need to do is we need to take those thoughts captive. And so, how do we redirect those thoughts through the word and and through saying, God, change my thoughts, change those areas of my life where I am thinking that I'm in control. I don't want to be in control. I want to give you the control because it all gets down to control. I want to give you that control and change those areas of my life. Bring that to mind. Help me to recognize it first, right? And then help me to change the perspective that I have and to know that you're in control and I want you in control.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Getting back to how you introduced this commitment versus surrender. I made a few notes on that. So tell me what you think of these. And I think this first one gets to what you were saying right there. Commitment is what I do, surrender is what God works in me, not my will but his. And then commitment still retains some control. I commit what is mine. Surrender says it's all yours, not mine. Commitment depends on me. Surrender is utter dependence on God. And then this, and this is this one really kind of I don't know, I'm really feeling this one, but commitment is striving, it's ongoing, and I must maintain it. Surrender is rest, it's done. I've already given it. And I understand that that only happens through Christ. You know, and only, as you were saying, only Jesus can work that desire in us. I mean, we can't even desire to do the right thing, but he works in us to will and to do. It must be the power of Christ at work in us.

SPEAKER_00 26:52

Yeah, that's really good. And one of the things I wrote down, surrender involves giving up all hopes of doing anything in your own power. It's just releasing even the hope of doing anything in your own power. Commitment is to do, and and surrender is to give up.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

There's a discernment that we need to understand and and and also, you know, to pray in that direction. Lord, help me to know when I'm getting into doing things in my own power, because that it seems like that happens so effortlessly. All of a sudden, you know, I'm working in my own power and not surrendering to the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 27:33

Exactly. It's my time with the Lord that, and it's like this morning, God was reminding me of certain things that I'm I'm needing to do in my life. And they're things that I can't do. I'm not able to do them because of, you know, my weaknesses, literally. And so what I keep trying to do is to try to do them. And the Lord was speaking to me this morning to just surrender it to him and and to trust him to do it, that he's working everything together for good. That God is never going to, you know, he's never going to put me in a situation where I need to do something that is unable to be done. Now, he will put me in situations where I'm not able to do it. Yeah. But if a situation or something needs to be done, God is going to work. Philippians 4 13. I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength, right? It's everything that we need to do, everything that God wants us to do. And those things in our life that we need to live out, those things that I need to deal with in my life, I can do all of these things only through Christ who gives me the strength to do it. And that involves surrender. That and involves trust and it involves faith and it involves yielding. And, you know, God. And the amazing thing is, I just keep thinking about this point, is when we do surrender to the Lord, He is able to bring us in a direction above anything we've ever asked or even imagined. Those burdens on our heart, those burdens, when I think about some of us that are burdened in prayer for people who are in situations that are not where they should be, or physical problems or spiritual problems, financial problems, and we're so burdened. And it is surrendering that to the Lord and trusting that God is able to work in these people's lives. It's only God can do it. If you have people in your life that are not where they should be spiritually, just praise God that He is able to work in their lives. Praise God that there's nothing that you can do. You you can't do anything unless the Lord prodds you, but He is able to work this together in in ways that He will work in their lives. You know, it's all what God can do. It's all more of God and less of me.

SPEAKER_01 29:46

So why do you think we don't surrender? Is it just the pattern of this world to be self-sufficient, or is it fear of Yeah?

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I think it's a combination. I think it's I definitely think it's pride, but it's the same thing. Like I said, why did why did the Israelites keep making idols? I mean, it's ridiculous. Like they constantly made idols. Why do they do that? There's something about when you can see something, there's some a control there that you have some kind of a control that you're doing something. And there's something about sitting back and letting someone else do it, even if that's God, that it's just it goes against our human nature. And and and I think it's a combination of what you said. I think it's the fear of the what if, right? What if, what if I let go and this happens? I mean, what if I surrender this and I stop trying to work it in my own and then it doesn't work right? What if I'm not hearing from God? What if, you know, what this direction that I'm sensing God wants me to go in? What if this is not the direction that I'm supposed to be going in? And so fear is a big thing. Self-sufficiency is a huge thing. I think, especially we're achievers. I know I I like to achieve things. I'm an achiever. I like to get things done. And so when when the Lord spoke to me about writing my first book, I was a good student. I didn't do well in school, and I barely read books. And then God was calling me to write a book. I was like, that is just insane. That's just not, that's just crazy. And I remember the Lord, it took three mornings of God um speaking to my heart and saying, I want you to do this, I want you to do this, I want you to do this, and me saying, I can't do it, I can't do it, I can't do it. And finally, the third time, that's what I did. I got up and I'm telling you, this was a this was a meeting with God. This was a me a meeting with the Lord, and I spalled and I sobbed and I said, Okay, God, I'm giving it to you. If you want me to do this, you have to do it through me. And you know, he did. And it was, I would sit down and I would just write a chapter and it would be done. And I would write another chapter and it would be done, and it was the easiest thing, and God worked it through me because I recognized my my inability and I surrendered it to the Lord, and he had in mind for me to do it, and so I did it, you know, through his grace and through his mercy.

SPEAKER_01 32:04

Hebrews 11:6, you know, that without faith, it's impossible to please God. I mean, there's there's no other way around it. That's how we please God. But why? It says we must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who seek him. So, I mean, even this fear that we have of the what ifs, the the the truth that God is our rewarder supersedes all those fears. And like Paul says, that point that he's making in Philippians is that he counts everything lost. And so the fear of losing whatever is is outweighed because we'll never lose God. He's with us always. Uh, that's a good point. I think you just really brought out the fact that faith is just such an an essential part of surrender because he's a God that we can't see.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Surrender is not an easy thing. It's a continual learning, but we grow during the difficult times. That's when we grow. When we're stretched, that's when we grow. When we fit in difficult times, that's when we grow. And that's where God calls us to surrender. That's when he calls us to trust that, like I've said, his grace outweighs our lack. He is more able than we're not able. He far exceeds what we're not able to do. And and that he has an amazing plan in store. That what we need to do is to surrender and let him do that through us.

SPEAKER_01 33:31

A life of rich blessing. God has a plan, and his plan is sweet and it's good. 1 Peter 2.23 says, speaking of Jesus, and while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. And then comparing that to John 2.24, it says, But Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men, and because he did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for he himself knew what was in man. And the difference there is that Jesus knew the heart of the Father. And so he completely entrusted himself to his father's love through the hardest time that he was going through, but he did not entrust himself to men because he knew what was in the heart of men. And I think again, that goes back to um your point of knowing who God is, knowing who God is to me, and knowing who I am to God.

SPEAKER_00 34:35

Absolutely. And that's encouraging. And it and this is helping me because, like I said, you know, I'm facing some stuff that I have to trust the Lord in. And and you know, it's just a great reminder that I need to surrender my everything to Him and to believe that He's gonna work in unbelievable ways.

SPEAKER_01 34:53

Yeah, and I think all of us, some days are not as tough as others, but it doesn't matter. Even in the great days, we need to be living a life of of surrender, complete surrender to God.

SPEAKER_00 35:07

It kind of makes me think too, we all go through seasons, right? We all go through seasons, and some of those seasons are really hard. They're they're winter seasons where everything is hard, hard seasons, but spring always comes after winter. You know, it just always does. And seasons might last for a while, but they eventually will change. And when we go through those seasons, our surrender to the Lord, you know, sometimes it's harder and other times it's not quite so hard, but God always gives us the grace that we need. Okay, let's pray. Oh Lord, as as we share our thoughts and our hearts and our desires about this issue of surrender to you, I pray that you would help us to be doers of your word and not hearers only. God, help us to live this out. This is so challenging. I know it's challenging in my life, and I know it's challenging in others' lives to take that step of surrender to you and trust you, God, that if if we're in a place like with the Israelites, that you're calling us to take that step, that you're gonna make it known, Father, that as we surrender to you, you're gonna direct our paths because you are God, because you are the one that works, Lord, because you are the faithful God who is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever ask or even imagine. Because you are the faithful and all-powerful and impossible working God. Lord, help us to trust you in the what-ifs. Father, that it's not what we can do, it's what you do through us that makes the difference. We're able to do some, but you're able to do everything. Father, we might have capabilities, but you work beyond any capability that we have. Father, you are wanting to work in a powerful way in every person's life that is listening to this. And you know each of our struggles, you know our battles, you know our concerns, you know what we're facing. God, you know everything about us. And I pray that the truth of your word, to trust you, to surrender to you, to believe that you are able to do that in our lives, God, that we would live that out in practical ways today. I pray that the enemy would not steal these truths from our hearts, that we would stand against them, that we would walk in obedience to your word. I pray, God, for those of us that are struggling and spending time alone with you, that you would convict our hearts, Father. Lord, convict our hearts. Bring in Nathan into our hearts, Father, who will speak the truth and to encourage us, God, and maybe rebuke us, God, to start spending that time with you. But Lord, I pray that each of us would spend that time with you, Lord, that we would hear from you and that we would grow and we honor you. We acknowledge that we want to live the life of sanctification that you've called us to live. Thank you, Father, for this life that you've called us to. We worship you today. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.