I wanted to add a little more to my last post. I suggested we ask ourselves, “What lie am I believing? How am I protecting myself from seeming danger or rejection or _______? How can I trust God instead?”
In addition to that, we need to move into repentance and surrender. Repentance is when we admit and face that believing a lie is sin. We ask God to forgive us and we are cleansed. What joy and relief to know that we don’t have to be held captive to that sin. There is a solution. We don’t need to condemn ourselves because Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation when we are in Christ. What wonderful news!
Then we can take an additional step into surrender. Surrender is when we trust God enough to say something like, “Even if I’m seen as…I’ll trust God” or “Even if what I fear happens….I’ll trust God.”
In the example I gave in the parking lot of the grocery store, my surrender would be, “Lord, even if Larry refuses to move the car because he doesn’t care about me, I’m willing to be seen as unloved and uncared for. I believe you love me and care for me well. That is enough. I trust you’ll provide everything I need.”
Then I don’t need to protect myself from rejection because rejection doesn’t declare my value. God says I’m valuable and important. Larry doesn’t hold the declaration of that. The Word of God does. Therefore I can risk asking him to move the car closer to the front of the store.
What freedom from lies, anger, and bondage. And what joy in being drawn closer to God’s loving heart. I focus on His love for me. I’m so grateful and humbled that I want to obey.
How would repentance and surrender make a difference in your life? I hope it does.
P.S. When I thought about a photo to go along with this post, I couldn’t imagine what could work. But when I typed in “surrender” in the search box of freedigitalphotos.net, the above photo came up. And I thought, “Wow! That’s it! That’s the feeling of repentance and surrender!” Isn’t that cool?