I’m excited to be back to the world of blogging after a break of more than a month! It has been one great month of vacation to India, meeting relatives and friends, encouraging others and being encouraged, lots of commitments and decisions being made, altogether a blessed moment. Well here is something right from my heart.
One of my favorite hymn that I often love to sing is “All to Jesus I surrender”.
But every time I sing or hear the song, I am challenged by the Holy Spirit of how much of me do I really surrender?
One of the toughest challenges I face sometimes is to let go. It’s hard to let go of the controls of our life, for the fear that things may not work in our way or fall into the complicated map we have designed in our head for our life. It’s hard to let go of our everyday tensions because we feel that it is our responsibility to carry it and see it through. It’s hard to let go of the past because there is too much attachment and history tied to our lives, and we feel that we need an occasional nostalgic encounter to move forward. It’s hard to let go of heart breaks and pain for the fear of forgetting what it felt like and getting hurt again. It’s hard to let go of certain relationships for the fear of being lonely.
It’s hard to let go of a lot of things and people. What happens in reality is that we become so burdened with all the pain and hurt that we forget how wonderful life is. We stoop so much with all the tensions we carry that we do not have sight of what God has in store for us and all we see is the ground beneath us and how close we are to it. I have often heard people grumble and crib about how wonderful life WAS and how it’s gone down the drain since a certain something happened.
When are we going to wake up and smell reality? When will we realize and learn to live according to His word. When God said in 1 Peter 5:7 to “cast our burdens on Him”, He meant it. He knew how weak we are and that we cannot live our lives without His grace. He is a faithful God to all the promises He has made in His word and still proves it daily in our lives, yet, we choose to forget. We choose to rely on our abilities and contacts than His grace and providence. We choose to build castles based our experience thinking that we are untouchable.
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that ‘giving in’ and ‘giving up’ are two different things. Giving in does not make us a failure, especially when we are giving into the hands and will of an Almighty God. I am reminded of another old hymn “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer”. Jesus said in John 14:27,
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
When things doesn’t work the way we wish, just calm down and rely on the word of God as written in Philippians 4:6,7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
May the Holy Spirit help us to let go of things that are holding us back, and live a life of peace and victory in Christ Jesus, standing on the promises in His Word!