I Surrender All

                                                         

Yesterday morning I woke up on January 19^th and heard the sweet words of the Lord reign through my head so clear saying are you going to trust me to today? Yes Lord I am going to trust you. How much are you going to trust me? I said I am going to trust you with everything.

As I sat up in bed I started thinking about what the Lord was speaking to me about this simple question that he has been asking me lately, about how today it was even louder even more profound. I was sharing later on with a friend where my heart was and he just asked what I thought that those words meant to me. Instantly I knew it was surrender. I said I knew that the Lord wanted me to live from a place of surrender even more than I have been, even more than I was a couple months ago on the World Race, even more now…

The word surrender means to place beside, to put at someone’s disposal. The dictionary definition is to give up possession or power over, to yield to another, to resign oneself. What would it look life if we lived a life that was yielded over to Lord, to live from a place of having no power? What would it be like if you literally resigned yourself from control? The beauty of surrender is the very thing that brought us to the cross. The fact that we said I don’t want to do this without you Lord, I can’t do this without. The plead with the Lord that we wanted him to take control, that we knew in that moment that there was nothing better than resigning our self and yielding to the power to God. Somehow along the way though our fists have been clenched and tightened. We have forgotten that sweet surrender of letting it all go into the hands of a God that is so far beyond what we could possibly ever know or imagine. It’s the fear of the not knowing that makes us hold tightly, the exasperating attempts of trying to stabilize ourselves out of our own stability instead of letting the Lord be all the stability we needed. Surrender propels us towards Jesus and I know that there is no better place and no place I would rather be than in the arms of my father.

I got a call from my sister a couple hours later that day. She simply said, “Sarah I need you to pray, there is a brushfire and it is about to burn our house down.” Oh how things can change on a moments notice, and it was at that time that I knew why the Lords words were louder in my head that day. That was my moment of surrender of saying God I am in a different state, a different time zone, I am away from my family and I can control nothing. At that time I had my arms up, palms open wide and I said here is everything I have Lord it’s yours, you can take it if you want, I am resigning. All I could do was pray and ask the incredible body of believers to pray with me.

Within minutes there we so many people praying for that fire to quench and those flames to leave. I have been so blown away once again by the vastness of our God and how he moves his people. That his people run to him in surrender and in surrender of a sister and her family who is hurting and ask him to take control. That they know that we serve a powerful God that hears our prayers. So here were just living from a place of surrender and propelling ourselves towards Jesus because we have nothing to lose.

God works in incredible ways and it just so happens that before the news of the fire came to me I was on my way to church. So I find myself at this church that I have never been to before, surrounded by people I have never met. I am getting messages from my sister that are saying the houses on the left and the right are burning to the ground and the house in back is leveled and the flames they are on our doorstep. So I share my heart to this church and once again surrender it all and say will you ask the Lord with me to take control. So as this extension of Christ’s body is laying hands on me and praying I get overwhelmed by the love of Christ once more. As I am in church and tears are streaming down my cheeks, the pastor starts sharing about the in between time and knowing that no matter what else is going on whatever tragedy you are going through the Lord is still sovereign. The Lord is just speaking so loud and so clear and I get some words from a friend. He says as I was praying over you and your family just now God said your house Sarah, it’s a house of God, a house that serves God and that house, your house, it is not going to burn.

He says I am playing the song let it rain right now over you and your home.

As I am weeping I just started praying and I said God I am your house, your temple of the holy spirit and I will stand always in proclamation of you and your great name. I will stand to tell of you and the testimony of your faithfulness, your glory, and there is nothing that will ever tear this house down.

Only about a minute later I get a call from my sister and about and hour and a half has gone by since everything started happening. I ran out of that church service and I said what is happening and she said Sarah we are going to be okay. She said that the house in back of us in burning down and the house on the left of us is still on fire but I am telling you that the flames when they got to our house they turned and moved the other direction. She said it literally skipped over our home and it has started to sprinkle. She said the only houses left on our street are these people and its crazy because they are all our friends from church, they are houses who serve the Lord. All I could do was praise God and speak of his glory.

So here I am standing outside and I have no words but praise for this God that I know and trust, this incredible God that I surrender to everyday, and my friend looks at me and she bursts into tears. She says Sarah I have been on the edge of wanting to know more about God, but if this doesn’t make me want to believe in God than I don’t know what would. She says I want to know this God that you know and I want to know him how you know him. She says I want to go and pick out a Bible Sarah and will you help to learn more about him. I said everything that has been given to me and poured into me you can have. What an honor and a privilege it would be to pour it into you and I can tell you that if I don’t know something then I will find someone who does know for you. So as the Lord is moving in my heart towards surrender and my family and everyone who is praying and this church he starts moving her heart towards surrender. All I can say is what a beautiful God that we serve, a God that calls us to divine appointments, and a God that we can trust.

I got home from the World Race the day before Thanksgiving. The moment I got home God asked me that question, “Is there anything you are not willing to give up for me?” My answer was no God no I will give it all! Since that day he has asked me are you going to trust me then. I have been moved by nothing but the Lord, and my heart longs to walk in nothing but the Lord with my heart rendered to him and him alone. He speaks and I move what a simple and wonderful concept. I want to share with you that when I got home the Lord said go and I said where and he said I will tell you Sarah. I booked a one way flight to Nashville and I said I have no idea where I am going after that but the Lord does. He has asked me to choose to lose control in him. The more I get to know the Lord and the depth of who he is more he asks me to choose to trust him and the more my heart says yes. And so the Lord is taking me on this crazy ride of just showing me one step and then the step after that and I get to live from this incredible place of trust and surrender where everyday I say God I don’t know? I have no stability but you Jesus and I don’t know what is coming next but God constantly says Sarah when you don’t know I do, you are my beloved, trust me.