Original Image by: Saxon Moseley

You know dear hearts, it has taken most of my saved life for me to really understand what it means to have a heart of total surrender. To have a surrendered heart is to be able to give up our desires for his will.

The prayer to surrender was a very hard prayer for me to pray because I really didn’t want to know his will or purpose for my life. It wasn’t hard because I didn’t love our Lord rather it was fear that I wasn’t capable of doing His will that made it hard for me. I didn’t want to disappoint Him. Therefore, I stayed in my self-imposed comfort zone for years, content not to seek God for his purpose in my life.

Our Heavenly Father, blessed be his name, has a way of knowing how to get our attention! He endured my reluctance with much love and longsuffering patience. His everlasting love and kindness brought me through every struggle, test and trial that could have destroyed me and with time he humbled me so that I would be able to pray for a spirit of acceptance – the ability to accept his will by surrendering my own.

Once I began to learn to not struggle against his will I received an answer to a prayer that I had prayed over ten years ago. His answer to me was, “No.” I accepted his answer by saying, “Thank you Lord.” This no-answer kept me from making one of the biggest mistakes of my life. He also showed me the reason he didn’t answer with “Yes.” To this day I praise our God for being wiser than I. Dear hearts every blessing that we receive doesn’t always have a ‘yes’ In front of it. Not when our prayers are answered by the wisdom of God!

We can only see what’s in front of us but God sees beyond our limited view. We live in the present but God has already stepped into our future to prepare the steps that he intends for us to follow. We must learn to trust our heavenly father’s thoughts toward us as he guides us into his will.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

¹² Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

¹³ And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

There’s nothing wrong with having dreams and aspirations or having a desire to be successful in one’s life as long as it doesn’t interfere with God’s will for our life. I could have been a fashion designer but there was something missing that I couldn’t find in that kind of success. It wasn’t until I met a young lady who is deaf that I realized that I so desperately wanted to be able to communicate with her.

The desire inspired me to study the beautiful language of sign. I purchased some books and dictionaries, prayed for knowledge and wisdom and this time God’s answer was “Yes.” He allowed me to pick up the knowledge quickly. I am so thrilled when I learn a new sign because only this awesome God can give this kind of knowledge to man. To be able to communicate with others by talking with your hands is a miracle! Recently I found out that my daughter’s school offers sign language classes, all I can say is “Here I am Lord, send me!”

Dear hearts, our Heavenly father knows all about our struggles, doubts and fears. Jesus Christ, God’s only son, had to surrender his will to the father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane. He spoke these words to the father, “Father if it is your will take this cup away from me: nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.” Are we greater than our Lord?

My sister told me years ago that God will never allow us to do more for him than he will do for us – we can’t out-give God! The years have proven her words to be true. If you don’t remember anything else I’ve shared with you, remember this, once you surrender your will to the will of God, everything else will fall into place. Surrender your heart and watch God work on your behalf.

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A Word of Thanks –

Rebecca and I count ourselves blessed in having such a wonderful extended Christian family in the faithful followers of Saint in Training and our many visitors. If there wasn’t a “You” there wouldn’t be an “Us”. Your prayers and support mean so much to us. Your encouraging testimonies are priceless. We love to be a blessing to our Christian family by offering words of encouragement and love but we too need a word of encouragement and you never fail to do just that.

With heartfelt love and thanks,

Ma Chris and Rebecca