The GT Weekend! ~ Surrender Week 3

Carol Graft
February 11, 2023
Rest your soul through reflective journaling,
praying Scripture,
and worshiping the Creator who
longs for intimacy with each of us!
This Week's Journeys

Acts 4:32-37
Prayer Journal Entry
Lord, You are Holy above all we can ask or think. You are more than faithful to provide what we need, when we need it. Help me to hold fast to what is true about You and Your work despite my circumstances. Help me resist the urge to control and give way to frantic fear.
Equip me to live with one mind and one accord with fellow believers as we urge each other to trust You. Give us willing hearts to surrender in full. I pray that our everyday surrender will make us ready to live generously as Your Spirit leads us. Help us to trust you as Provider when we don’t immediately see the provision but we see the need. As we give and share with open hands, shape our hearts so we are actively living from a place of desiring to give You glory. Use our actions to draw others closer to You.
In Jesus name, Amen!
Worship Through Song
Journal Prompts
Brenda’s Journey Study, together with Stacy’s Digging Deeper Study, beautifully remind us just what surrender looks like in real life.
Do you ever recognize yourself grasping at control, only to end up more frustrated and frantic? Comparing and contrasting true surrender with self-sufficiency helps us understand how one brings freedom and one births only anxiousness and struggle. Freedom and peace are available to each of us if we are willing to trust the Almighty God who loves us; the choice is ours.
Brenda’s examples from Scripture really highlight God’s faithful character to finish His good work in us, which provides us with strong encouragement! It’s not easy to be convicted of sin, but it is necessary to welcome the full life God desires for us. We must hold to the truths of God’s Word that He is indeed, and always will be, our Sustainer, Supplier, and Satisfier.
Full surrender to Christ won’t mean our lives will be strife-free, but it does mean we will be held in God’s hands and He will faithfully bring about His glory and our good!
Using the unlikely story of Hosea and Gomer, Amy paints a wonderful picture of what godly surrender in relationships look like. She first demonstrates how, not only is the biblical narrative a depiction of God and Israel, but it’s also a portrayal of God and us.
Humans are sinful creatures by nature and it’s easy for us to neglect keeping God foremost in our hearts, minds, and lives. Then Amy flips things and shows us that, like Hosea, we each long for pure relationships. We were created for rich and meaningful, healthy connections, but also like Hosea, we tend to go about things our own way.
We need to learn to surrender and trust God for our desires, not just in romance and marriage, but in friendships and co-worker partnerships as well.
Let’s choose together to surrender our ideals to God and trust He will give us better than we could possibly do on our own.
In yesterday’s Journey Study, Mandy transparently shared how her struggle with chronic illness, after decades of health, has reminded her to surrender in full to Jesus.
The call to surrender sounds painful and challenging as she shared her story! Have you walked similar pathways? When our life seems to be headed in a fine direction and our plans are made only to be sidelined by significant challenges, whether chronic illness or something else, our perspective changes.
Often, the temptation is to become embittered at God or angry at others, casting blame and wrapped ever tighter in pain. Thankfully, when we surrender to the Lord Jesus, as Mandy exemplified, there is still blessing and Kingdom work to accomplish.
Even if we don’t understand all of God’s reasons or have satisfactory answers to our “why” questions, we can be confident that in surrender of our hearts and lives, God will be faithful to work in and through us to accomplish His good and eternal work!
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This Week's Lock Screen

