SURRENDER: My Life is Not My Own

I've been going back and forth about what I should post about next. I started last week thinking, I should post something for my birthday, perhaps I can talk about what I’ve learned in the past year. Or maybe I can share some golden nuggets I’ve gathered through the years. Every time I sat down to think about it, I came up with nothing. Sigh.

I’ve been doing #tbt on my social media (shameless plug: follow me if you aren’t already, a link to my social media pages are at the bottom of this page) every week leading up to my birthday and this week I decided to share one of my senior high school pictures. As I sat and looked at the picture, I thought about all the plans I had for my life. Let me share some of them with you. The plan was to go off to college, graduate with my nursing degree (didn’t happen) and move to Charlotte (because I’ve always wanted to move there – also didn’t happen, at least not yet). I would graduate at 21 (this happened ) be married by 24 (nope, this didn’t happen either) have my first child at 26 (didn’t happen, still waiting), and my second and last child at 28. Oh, and don’t forget the house (this did happen, praise God) with the white picked fence, lol. See, I had it all figured out. Lol. So I thought.

For the past few days, the song, “Give myself away” by William McDowell has been stuck in my head. At random times, the song would pop into my head, but only one part of the song. Towards the end of the song, he goes into “my life is not my own, to you I belong, I give myself, I give myself to you…” it wasn’t until today, I began to fully understand, I must fully surrender to God; my life is truly not my own. The more I make “my plans” the more I’m sure the Lord is somewhere laughing at me, “bless her heart.” This song helped me to recognize, my revelation for this past year is this, my life is not my own, to God I belong, I must learn to give myself fully to him. I could go through my laundry list of all the things that have gone “wrong” this past year, however, I choose to focus on what was learned in each of those situations, God is sufficient. The main thing I’ve learned is to surrender to God, allow him to lead the way, he’s got me, even when things go left. And when I fully surrender, because he is the great God that he is, he will bless me.

Someone asked the question, what would I tell my high school senior self, here’s my advice. Trusting and knowing God’s voice is the key to success. Things won’t always go as planned, but trust God anyway, knowing he is always working things out for your good. I share this same advice with you, learn God’s voice, he won’t steer you wrong, allow Him to lead you and know he will always work it out for your good. Even in trusting God, things won’t always go “right” but with Him you can conquer anything.

I’ve been reading the book, Watch Your Mouth, by Tony Evans. It’s an amazing book, that I’d recommend. It has also helped me to come to this realization, I’m here to live my life for God. I must follow him. His timing is not mine, but I know and believe He is working it out for me.

God is showing me more and more when I give it all to Him, my obedience will reap rewards. As you follow Christ, he will give you the desires of your heart. “Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.” Psalms 37:4-6 NIV

In this next year of life, I’m learning to trust God more and following his lead. My obedience will open doors I would have never imagine. Not only that, I must do my part and push past fear to accomplish the things he has purposed for me to complete. Yes, I’m continuing to break barriers. I pray you continue to join me on this journey. Surrender, and know there’s something special for you on the other side of your obedience. Be blessed!