Hi, welcome back. Or welcome if you’ve never been here before. How was your February? We’re now at the end of the second month of 2025. There’s been a lot going on in the world, a lot of craziness that can have us wondering what to do. What will the future look like? 

God’s been reminding me in it though, that He’s the God of history. He sees everything that’s been going on, even what we can’t see behind the scenes, and He’s not surprised. He’s not trying to get His bearings and account for new information. He already knew. 

He’s been reminding me to surrender to Him and to the fact that He does already know. That He is the God of history. Which means I’m in good hands. He’s bigger and more powerful than the situations we face. 

What does it mean to surrender to God? To submit to Him? I grew up in the church and so I grew up hearing this phrase all the time. I felt like I had a pretty good understanding of it as a kid, and probably did understand it about as much as a kid can, but I’m beginning to realize more as I get older what it looks like in my everyday life. 

Probably the best example of surrender comes from Jesus Himself in Mark 14. Jesus is in Gethsemane and He’s praying to God about the pain and death that He knows is coming in the form of the cross. In verse 36 He says, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  

Jesus brought what He wanted before God. He didn’t want to go through the betrayal of His arrest and His death on the cross. But He also understood that God wouldn’t ask it of Him if it weren’t the best thing. Paul tells us the same thing in Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.” Because Jesus surrendered His own will to God’s, the path to salvation is free and clear. 

Surrender means to let go of our expectations, to let go of our plans and understand that His are better. To submit to God requires us to trust Him. To trust that He’s good and that He has our best interests at heart. We have to take our hands off of the situation, stop monitoring how God is doing with it (as if He needs our help), and let Him be God. 

When you surrender, you’re giving up fighting against something. When you surrender to God, you’re giving up fighting against Him and submitting to His will. Which is the best thing we could do. He loves us. And all He wants for us is the best. More of Himself. Sometimes that means He gives us what we’re surrendering to Him. Sometimes it means He redirects us. 

My brother gave me a really good analogy for this. Think of a river. If you fight against the current, you’ll end up exhausting yourself and you might even drown. But if you surrender yourself to the current and accept where it’s taking you, you can float along safely.

God works the same way. When we fight against His directions, all we do is tire ourselves out. When we stop fighting against Him, everything flows more easily. 

This is a lesson that I’m continually learning. 

I’m learning to trust God to get me where I need to be. I’m learning to trust that He’s faithful to guide me and to provide for me. And to make me more like Him in everything that He does for me. He shows me where I need to change and where I need more of Him, usually by letting me embrace that thing I don’t need so that I can watch it fail. So that I can know personally that He’s better. 

I have hopes and dreams, things I’ve been praying about and waiting for God to do. And I’ve had to learn how to let go of those things too. To do my part of them and then to trust Him to be the good God that I know He is. I’m learning to trust Him ever more to be the God who loves me as much as He says He does. The One who cares about what I care about. I wrote a whole post on that last month. You can check it out here if you haven’t read it. 

He sees the way ahead better than we ever could with any amount of planning or striving. He cares about even our day-to-day, our hopes and dreams, and our fears. All we have to do is our part. Pray. Trust. Listen for His direction. Obey. 

If you’re praying for a new job, keep praying. Fill out the job applications. Go to the interviews. Trust your Father to get you where you need to be. And listen to His direction. 

If you’re praying for a person, keep praying. Understand that as much as you love that person, God loves them immeasurably more and He’s seen their life start to finish. Do what you can to help them and then trust Him to take care of them too. He can do it better than we ever could. 

If you’re praying for a dream to be realized, put in the work that’s necessary on your part and trust your Father to do the rest. He’ll do the heavy lifting. He’ll give you favor where you need it and redirection where you need that. 

Remember that part. 

God will redirect where you need it. There is no license to demand God do what you want Him to. He’s God. He knows what’s the best thing to happen and sometimes that doesn’t match what we want. Not even Jesus got preferential treatment there. Part of surrender, a big part of surrender, is understanding that. It’s laying it down at the Lord’s feet and saying not my will, but Yours be done. And then believing that.  

He sees and understands much more than we can. His ways are higher than ours and His thoughts are higher than ours. Trust Him to know what’s better for you. Trust Him to be on time. Trust Him to love you as much as He says He does. And to be the good God that He is. If you’re leaving a situation in His hands, leave it there. Don’t keep picking it back up. 

Remember, your greatest calling is always to be a servant of Christ. Seek to please Him, do the work in front of you to honor Him, and He will always get you where you need to be. Listen and be obedient. Be faithful. Trust Him to do the rest.