We think we’re in control. We think this life is really about our plans. Some of us are safely navigating the path of least resistance while others of us don’t mind the struggle as long as it ends with us getting everything we want.
But how do you reconcile matters when your plans don’t go the way you tried to make them go? I’m not talking about the trivial matters of life, I’m talking about the big stuff. The epic fails of life. The things that leave us devastated, in puddles on the floor, questioning our existence and our own will to keep on living. How do we respond to the crises that make it hard to breathe, hard to see past the moment, hard to have vision for the future? What future? Where do I go from here? This-THIS was my everything, and now it’s blown away in the wind.
Have you ever experienced something like that in your life? I have. I know if you are reading this, that can only mean one of two things: you either survived it or you are presently working your way through surviving it.
I want to encourage you. You will come through it. You will stand again. You will breathe again- not the anxiety-ridden breathing, but the inhales of peace and the exhales of rest. You were never meant to carry what you tried to tow around for all of those years. Sometimes it’s just time to stop the charades, and let the walls fall down. No more duct-tape, no more trying to trying to plug leaks, no more keeping up appearances. No more faking it till you make it.
SURRENDER. Cease resistance. Your plans aren’t working. When are you going to admit that to yourself? You were never in control anyway. You just thought you were.
Give Ashes, get beauty.
Give God the pieces. Give Him the remnants. You ask, “What could he possibly do with what’s left?” Or maybe there’s nothing tangible left to give. Even better. Give him your heart. I promise you– that’s all He’s ever wanted from you.
There are so many touching lyrics I love in a song by Danny Gokey called “Tell Your Heart To Beat Again.” In it he says, “Get back up. Take step one. Leave the darkness, feel the sun. Say goodbye to where you’ve been and tell your heart to beat again.”
When you finally surrender control, You give God the authority to begin to move and act on your behalf. Think of it this way: My plans in my hands -or- His plans for me in His hands. You don’t have to be genius to figure this one out.
Jeremiah 29:11-14 For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all of your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and will bring you back to the place from captivity.
Isaiah 14:24 The Lord Almighty has sworn, “Surely as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.”…For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
Trust Him with your heart. Trust Him with His plans for you. Tell your heart to beat again.
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