Surrendering Control to God

 

I surrendered to God’s call to save my soul when I was a teenager. I believed Jesus could send me to heaven but I ran from His amazing grace for a long time. I had not surrendered every part of my life to Him. Crazy to say that out loud yet how many of us can say this as well? I still wanted to live by the worlds standards. 

I needed to learn how to surrender my will to Gods will. I had to learn my belief in Christ meant that I was to walk in His Spirit, trust His ways and those ways are better than my ways.  

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.”

‭‭Galatians‬ ‭5:16-17‬ ‭ESV‬‬

I was taught growing up to be in control of my life. You can do whatever you set your mind to but you must work hard to do it all of which rely on me. Hard work was natural for me. What I wasn’t natural was to rely totally on Jesus. I believed He had my eternity covered BUT the here and now I wasn’t so sure about. I wasn’t surrendering every area of my life. My knowledge of God at this point in my life was what others had told me not my own first hand knowledge of the Word of God. 

I wasn’t living like I believed God. My marriage after many hurtful fights felt hopeless and my parenting felt like I failed my children in many ways. 

My total trust wasn’t in Jesus Christ for reassurance a d healing. 

It was in what I had trusted and clung to for a very long time, control. I would continue for a long time believe in what I could control around me or if I worked harder everything would work out. ⁣

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It was such a turning point in my life when I totally surrendered control to God. I was at the end of myself. I broke down in tears of exhaustion. I prayed to God for help. I felt the weakest I have ever felt yet the strongest I have ever felt in my life. God answered in His time and He healed what felt broken beyond repair in my marriage. He told me I was the parent for these children no matter what choices they make you did the best you knew how. He still loved me and wanted fellowship with me. 

Not having control over situations is a terrible feeling for someone like me who thrived off control. In my prayers I heard God whispering come to me, “I have always been here.” Give it all to me.” ⁣

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When I finally surrendered to Gods authority on my life I received His sweet gift of grace. I listened to the Spirit, I couldn’t get enough of God, His Word and His transforming power. I saw the strongholds fall in my life fall one by one and finally felt freedom standing in the middle of His amazing grace.⁣ You see I was saved at a young age but I ran from surrendering everything to my Savior. As I leaned from reading and learning who God is the people of Israel in the OT I could see myself. I saw my strongholds and heart sickness I lived with for so long. God never gave up on His people then and He doesn’t today.  Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8)

Today is has been a daily surrender and dying to self and I hope you will join me in this. I would love to hear your stories of surrender and listening to the Spirit. -𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺 

Tag me in your testimony  #knitthegospelintoyourheart 

Do you get distracted from bible study?

 

Have you ever noticed when we make plans for bible study or meeting with friends for bible study something distracts us from getting there or even studying? 

I have. We are excited and lay out everything and then things distract us from this precious time together as believers to disciple one another and read scripture. Of course, we may be adding unnecessary pressure to ourselves like having the perfect study time. It definitely can be a drive by through the day because who says we can’t read a little in the morning and through the day as time allows? It could happen at lunch breaks, evenings and mornings. Our schedules are always changing and so can our devotional time with God. 

The beauty and goodness of it is that God always meets with us when we come ready to receive His Word. If we can meet with other believers and become disciples together even better. Jesus called disciples to him because it is better for us to be in community to learn together, walk in our faith together and pray for one another. 

My prayer is that I don’t add conditions to my time with God but just show up where and when I can everyday and that my heart and speech would be filled with grace and truth to share my testimony for the kingdom of God.  

Be a cheerleader for others

As a parent we want the best for our kids. We want them to succeed, reach for their dreams and be the encouragement they need. I want to root on the side line for them and be the loudest voice. What about you?  

Personally, I can remember my mom driving me to all my childhood events as a teen. She did it after work and on weekends. She would drive me to buy the necessary gear and clothes and I realize now all these years later how tired she must of been some days but she was my cheerleader. Did you have a your cheerleader rooting for you planting hope in you? 

My husband often talks about his football coaches being the voice of encouragement to him in high school. His parents were divorced and not always present for the games or practices growing up. He says there were many times the coaches would be that voice in his life to keep moving forward and to do his best. 

Our stories of growing up whether coming from broken homes, blended families or glass houses in ministry can all shape us toward God’s plan for our lives. He knows the outcome and we must learn to surrender ourselves to trust Him. It’s not easy learning this discipline but oh when we do friend God truly gives us peace in our decisions and our personal stories become the testimonies of God’s goodness in our lives. His story brings hope to others. 

God continues to use voices in our lives even as adults to speak encouragement and wisdom to us. I was blessed by this message my sweet husband wrote and I will tell you that it had me weeping.  

“The story isn’t always what we want it to be. 

It’s usually difficult. 

It’s usually uncomfortable. 

It usually forces you to trust God. 

It always produces Godly character. 

It puts your focus on Him instead of you.”

Lots of biblical stories are your story. God makes great men out of all those stories and used them to change the world.”

What is God doing through you? 

What is your story going to be? 

How do you honor God through this? 

Finding My Purpose

 

Last year I lost my purpose for my business and began feeling driven by time and striving toward things that frankly didn’t even matter in the long term. 

As I have stepped back and took a look at how I got here, I can see that I was striving  so hard in business and God isn’t in the striving.  He is in the stillness with Him and in the slow intentional moments. There is hard work that goes into a handmade business but my intention is always to honor Jesus with it. 

Jesus gave me knitting as a outlet of rest in Him but also a creative way to share the gospel through knit bracelets and writing.  Writing was never on my radar but something that I have come to enjoy as part of this ministry. 

I am still creating and knitting bracelets and it’s been a blessing in this season of slow.  I still have a few designs and am taking custom design orders right now. 

Thank you if you are still here following my journey.