Daily Delight
“Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring.” -Proverbs 27:1 (ESV)
While I encourage friends to ‘let go and let God’ and sing ‘Lord, I live for you alone’, I am not too different from the Jews James spoke of (James 4:13-15). I’ve decided I’ll have 3 kids, my first one by 30 and I know what schools I’ll send them to. I’ve plotted a rough career trajectory for the next 10 years – I have two, depending on which career path I take. In my chronic need for control, God has fallen off my agenda. I’ve lost sight of the fact that control is not borne out of my successes or abilities but comes from dependence upon our sovereign Lord, His grace and the goodness of His promises.
Yet why do we struggle with surrendering when we know these truths? Often, we speak of surrender as giving up. Giving up our future dreams and present lives. But really, our struggle with surrender is not about giving up but giving in. We go to God with clenched hands because we approach Him with closed hearts.
God calls us to be still, to know Him and to come to understand His will. But often we’re impatient with Him, wanting an endorsement for our own will rather than seeking His. We go to Him expecting understanding to come overnight and refuse to humble our hearts to learn to understand what He says. We presume we know all there is to knowing Him and stop Him from showing us who He is.
However, God welcomes this struggle. In fact, He desires it. It is in this struggle that our need for Him is stirred and illusions of ourselves are exposed. For in God’s agenda, becoming precedes doing.
Surrender is not about what we want to accomplish for God. It’s about being faithful to who God calls us to be in Him. My pastor aptly calls surrender a ‘pilgrimage’. Are you struggling with surrendering to God? Don’t resist or, as I did, resent it. Embrace it and in the words of Paul, press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14, ESV).
{photo: @mariadanielledoka}
About the Author
Rebecca Wong≫ ≫ Raised in a non-Christian family in Singapore, Rebecca encountered the boundless love and saving grace of Jesus Christ at university in London. While it has not always been easy to remain faithful, God has been unwavering and relentless in His pursuit of her.
An aspiring lawyer-in-training, Rebecca believes in the power of words, especially those fueled by the Word of God. When she's not reading and writing for work, she enjoys being outdoors, from scuba-diving around Southeast Asia to taking long walks around reservoirs while contemplating the Psalms with her boyfriend.
Over the next few months, Rebecca hopes to grow in sensitivity to the Lord's Spirit so as to serve the Daughter of Delight community through ways in which He intends.