The Secret to Joyful Living

 

Surrender

and then surrender some more

Our need for God doesn't stop with salvation.   

Can we stop there?  

Yes. 

Does He want us to? 

No.

God LOVES you, and His promises are true.  He will care for you like a father cares for his child.  He will protect you, provide for you, guide you, lead you to places that you never thought you'd be, give you a life that you never imagined.  

But we have a choice:

We can walk in our own wisdom and strength, or we can acknowledge that He knows best and follow Him anywhere.

 

He wants us to surrender.  To place everything in His hands.  Our visions.  Our hopes.  Our plans.  He doesn't want us to sacrifice them...He wants us to understand that His vision, hopes, and plans for us are BETTER than our own.  He wants our trust.

Like the prodigal son, we can take from God the inheritance that is ours and spend our time in the world seeking riches and pleasure; always loved, always welcomed by the Father, always rejoiced over when we return.  Like the Israelites, we can see the Promised Land that God has for us and turn away because of the giants, and end up wandering in the wilderness, still under God's good provision and protection.

Or...we can seek him and trust Him, not only experiencing His refuge, His provision, His grace and mercy, but also His power, His will, His purposes, and His JOY!  

No, it may not always be happy.  

We may not always have that which the world calls "blessed": the houses, the cars, the resources to entertain ourselves at every whim.  We may not even have peace. 

We may be poor.  We may mourn.  We may struggle.  We may be persecuted.

It may be terrifying.  But it will require that we trust in Him alone, with no hope of depending on our own understanding or strength.  Only here can we truly attribute glory to God.   Only here can we really see Him at work in a way that cannot be questioned or forgotten.  Only here can we know how our daily bread was provided, or how our children have grown to be Godly young men and women.  Only here can we tangibly feel the burden of the yoke borne by Christ. 

And this is where the joy comes.  True joy.