If you told me I would be where I am today when I was young, I might not believe you. If you shared some of the details of my life before they happened, I would think you were talking about someone else. When my life turned out different than I imagined, I had two choices: stick around to see what’s next or run away. If every challenge leaves me shaking, then I forget that a life with God is always about the chance to surrender and the waiting that is on the other side.
Surrender
Last year was my year of surrender. Not only was it my One Word for 2018, but it was God’s way of teaching me to let go and know that He is my soft landing every time. It was beautiful, hard, filled with repeated lessons, and God’s gift of showing me that in the letting go, I lost a piece of myself but gained more of Him.
By the end of 2018, I believed I had “made it.” I was secure in my identity as His child. I believed I was enough in Him and I found freedom in knowing God is always with me. My work of surrendering led me to the top of the mountain. God called, I answered, and all that was left was resting in the place of surrender. But that is not where the story ends.
Surrender is one piece of the puzzle which I soon found doesn’t ever end.
God’s work in and through me is ongoing and He wants to lead me to complete freedom in Him. Surrender is the letting go that is necessary when I pick up stray ideas and wander in the wrong direction.
God quickly showed me that surrender aligns with waiting. In the process of letting go, God pruned, clipped, and nourished my soul. This required patience and hope in the in-between time.
Fast forward to 2019. God is teaching me that at the intersection of surrender and waiting there is freedom.
Waiting
Let’s talk about
Really!!
The work that God continues to accomplish in me and through me is exactly what is happening in the waiting. It is not a time of nothing but a period marked by God working behind the scenes. What I know is that God is working all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
That my friends is God’s promise for you and I.
Four years of sitting in the waiting
Receiving
Enter 2019. A new year and a new word.
When God laid the word “receive” on my heart, my first reaction was “are you sure”? I had momentum going from my year of “surrender” and didn’t understand the call to “receive.” Was I supposed to quickly push the brakes and come to a screeching halt?
What doesn’t make sense to me makes perfect sense to God.
God knew that rest was crucial this year. While physical rest is important, God also wanted me to quiet my mind. The last four years have been on “zoom” and God wanted to give me what would fill my body, mind, and soul.
And now that we are approaching October, I can say that I am experiencing new freedom from the surrender and waiting. I have said a lot of “noes” along the way but it feels right.
No to leading a Bible study. No to writing a weekly devotional for another ministry. And, no to taking on anything extra that will pull me away from my family.
Friend–God knows your heart. He hears you, sees you, and knows what you yearn for even before you do. He took the intersection of surrender and waiting and brought freedom. God’s unexpected is the gift of your heart’s cry that you didn’t know you asked for.
I am resting in God’s best for me. Will you join me and reflect on what is listed below?
Maybe part of the solution in the surrender and the waiting is inviting God into every step.
Or maybe, we need to crack open the darkness we carry deep inside for God to shine His light.
Maybe, we are desperate for God as much as He desires to spend time with us.
God is teaching me that at the intersection of surrender and waiting there is freedom. #newpost #TellHisStory #linkup Share on XWhat I know is that hanging out with God daily (Psalm 73:28) leaves the door open for my heart to receive God’s goodness. Every good gift comes from God (James 1:17) and He doesn’t break His promises. Ever.
Surrender it all. Rest in the wait. Receive the goodness of God.
Blessings,
There is so much here that resonates, Mary. At the beginning of the last school year, I was pretty sure we were going to slide through my girls’ junior and 8th grade years with no major problems or issues. I had absolutely no way of knowing how wrong I was, or where the problems would come from! I keep learning that God’s plans for us are perfect, and perfectly timed, even if we don’t like them or understand them. I love how your words for the year have set the stage for what He has been doing in your life. 🙂
The good thing is that God always knows what will happen and is right there with us through the good and bad. God is a God of perfect timing and many times this is not the timing we would choose. God has chosen perfect words for me even though the process is challenging. Thanks for your insight.
I love hearing people’s words and what God is teaching them. laurensparks.net
Thank you! Have you ever been in this place of surrender and waiting? I would love to hear your thoughts.
God had a theme going Mary! Check out my post below 😉
Blessings,
Jennifer
I love when God makes connections like this. Off to read your post.
Mary, this post really encouraged me. And this is new and fresh insight for me and something I so desperately needed right now: “God is teaching me that at the intersection of surrender and waiting there is freedom.” Wow! I have read this many times today and reflected on it. I wrote on unstoppable faith last week. Those things we continue to wait on and hope for all have a purpose to increase our faith, not decrease it. God continues to remind me that His timing really is perfect; His plans for me are always for my good and His glory.
God has some beautiful reminders for you and for all of us. I have lived the surrender/waiting cycle over and over and even though it doesn’t always turn out the way I imagine, God has provided greater freedom for me. May you continue to see the fruit of your own waiting and how God is working through it all.
Thank you, Mary! I needed to hear this today. I’m struggling with being still and chasing all the shiny things.
It is easy to get distracted. I started asking myself the question “is this leading me to greater freedom or weighing me down with busyness.” I hope you find your way to greater freedom.
I love this, Mary. Such beautiful insight into our need for surrender. I continue to be a work in progress. I love how you describe God as our soft landing when we surrender. And how true it is that “in the letting go, I lost a piece of myself but gained more of Him.” Yes, He must increase and we must decrease. Thank you for sharing these encouraging reflections on surrender and waiting! Love and blessings to you!
I love knowing we are a work-in-progress together. The cost of surrendering to God is losing a piece of ourselves but gaining so much more of Him. I pray you see the gift of God every time you let go and the blessing of a deeper relationship as a result.
I love that God knows our hearts … and gives us that discernment on when to say, ‘no, thanks’ to invitations and opportunities.
Bless you for this needed reminder to rest in His presence, to be sensitive to His leading.
You teach me so well on how to wait and rest well. You live it and it shines through in your words. I am thankful for you and for how God continues to teach me.
Surrender was my word for 2016 and it is definitely something I am still working on. I think it will be a life-long journey! I loved your thoughts on waiting. It is not something that comes easily to many of us but I think those are often the times when God does some of his deepest work.
I know we share “surrender” as one of our words. I learned from you when you went through it. I almost think “wait” should be my one word based on the fact I’m living it and learning so much in the process. Blessed by your wisdom.
Mary, as usual, I love your photos! I also loved reading this, particularly this line: “What I know is that hanging out with God daily (Psalm 73:28) leaves the door open for my heart to receive God’s goodness.”
Amen and Amen!
Thank you! I love taking photos. It brings me great joy. Praying you receive an abundance of God’s goodness as you lean into knowing Him better.
Hmm – my word for this year has been “surrender.” Sometimes I think God has done much (and He has) and there cannot be much left to surrender:) but other times, I’m sure I have just scratched the surface. The waiting can be a challenge for me….I’m sure there is a connection there. More waiting – allowing God to work through my lessons of surrender. Thanks for the encouragement.
Thank you for sharing, Jennifer. After my year of surrender in 2018, I learned that it never ends. I mistakenly believed I had “made it.” I see a big connection between surrender and waiting. One needs the other and God is there for all of it. Blessings as we approach the weekend.
Dear Mary,
Thank you for sharing such beautiful words about surrender and waiting. These especially touched me so deeply, “God’s unexpected is the gift of your heart’s cry that you didn’t know you asked for. ” He is continuing to show me that the very things that get pruned away are the answers of my deep heart longings that I didn’t realize were there. He uncovers so much in the waiting, doesn’t He? And your photos always bring me such joy, too! Blessings to you in the waiting!
I know you could teach me so much about waiting. You are a beautiful example to me as to what this looks like. I find that many times I don’t mind the waiting because God is still with me and it is going to be wonderful on the other side.
I love taking pictures. It brings me great joy too.
Mary – You have no idea how I needed to read your post this morning. I have a no I need to say, and I am holding back. My phrase for the year is “letting go.” I haven’t done it.
Oh, how I can relate to your words – “Yes, I spent time with God, but in the next breath I took off to find my own solution. Can you relate?”
I love this – Surrender it all. Rest in the wait. Receive the goodness of God
Thank you – Maree
Thank you for sharing this. It really blesses me to know that God is speaking to you through these words. “Letting go” is a powerful phrase and I am sure God is working on providing situations to help you rely on Him. I am praying for you as you approach this situation. May we both learn to surrender it all, rest in the wait, and receive the goodness of God.
Thank you! Yes, He is showing me loud and clear.
God has a way of doing that, doesn’t He??
I have been learning new things about “surrender” in recent months, Mary. At a Bible study I participated in this summer, one woman said she had a dream where she was driving on a dangerous, hard road, and looked at her passenger only to realize it was Jesus! He said, “Why don’t you let me drive?” That image has stuck with me!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on surrender, waiting, and receiving.
That is a powerful image. I love being in control and knowing that Jesus is actually in control of my life is not always easy for me. I have a pastor who has also shared a similar image of Jesus driving the car but in her story, it is making sure our emotions don’t drive the car because they make poor drivers. Thank you for sharing. I hope you share more about surrender over at your place.
We never stop needing to surrender, and what I don’t understand is why I still find it so hard when I know, by God’s Word and by experience, that He is kind, wise, loving, knows what He’s doing, has my best interests at heart. I guess it goes back to the self-will we struggle with daily. That’s why it’s so important to keep renewing our minds with His truths.
I just had to come back and share this, Mary. After I linked up and commented here, I turned my monitor off and began my quiet time with the Lord. I started out, as I always do, with Daily Light on the Daily Path, a devotional book I read about in many missionary biographies, like Amy Carmichael’s. A couple of verses in today’s reading were these: “The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. – Therefore will the LORD wait that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.” (Lamentations 3:25; Isaiah 30:18). After I had just read about waiting in your post, God brought that truth up again His Word quoted in this devotional. I love when He intersects the same truth through different sources on the same day!
Thank you for coming back and sharing this. God loves to make connections especially when we need to hear a message more than once. He certainly knows us well, doesn’t He?
I also find it hard to surrender and know that part of my problem is that I let go and feel like I need to pick it up again. It sounds like you understand this too.
So good. I’m in a similar season. A friend says I seem to be “emerging”. Thanks for sharing how surrender is simply acceptance.
I am emerging also but am finding it is a slow process. You will have to share what this looks like for you. I know when God says “surrender” it is not a “one and done” situation. May we both find that acceptance and courage as we move forward.
What a beautiful journey you have been on. Not always easy, I’m sure, but beautiful nonetheless.
“What doesn’t make sense to me makes perfect sense to God” is the perfect thing for us to remember as we balance the surrender, waiting and receiving!
I love when you join me here. It makes my heart happy. I imagine you understand surrender and waiting. I know that God always knows what we don’t know and when I remember that truth it’s okay. Praying you see the hand of God in whatever season you are in right now.
This has been a great review of the past two years’ road map, and I’m also sitting with my right-now life and coming to similar conclusions.
And no way would I have predicted this particular script and setting, and yet all of it is a gift.
That image of the monarchs and the sunflowers is STUNNING!
Life is a gift and at the end of the day, God brings me back to this truth time and time again. I love getting older to see the old mixing with the new. It is a beautiful blessing that God bestows on each of us.
I love that you noticed both monarchs. They were flying everywhere around me that day and I hoped I would catch one flying. Wouldn’t you know when I went back to look at my pictures I noticed God did exactly that.
Mary,
It’s funny, sort of, that just when I think I’ve “arrived”, God says, “Nope, I’m going to take you deeper still.” I think that we are in continuous seasons of surrender and waiting. I’m learning that God isn’t so much concerned with my comfort and happiness, as He is with my character and molding me into the likeness of His Son…and THAT takes a lot of surrender. So glad to be along with you for your journey – it gives me hope and reminders that God’s got this!
Blessings,
Bev xx
I’m not sure that funny is the word, but I do know God is never finished with us. He taught me that this past January and it was a rude awakening. I love that you shared God is concerned with our character. Yes and amen. That is the truth of how He wants and continues to work in and through us. I am so lucky to have you along on this journey with me. You get it and me! 😉