Walking in the Truth by Relinquishing Control

Sweet Surrender
Pages 259-262

The following Truths are crucial for women in our day to believe and embrace. They form a solid foundation and a protective fortress for our mind, will, and emotions. We must be willing to surrender ourselves to the One Who is able to mold our character into one that will be well-pleasing to Him.

12. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God will enable me to do anything He commands me to do.

Philippians 2:13, "for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

The issue is not that we can't obey God -- that we can't forgive that parent who hurt us so deeply, that we can't love that colleague at work, that we can't give thanks in the midst of the storm, or that we can't be content with our one-bedroom apartment.

The real issue is that we won't forgive, we are unwilling to love, and we refuse to give thanks and to be content with what God has provided.

13. I am responsible before God for my behavior, responses, and choices.

Way back in the Garden, after Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God came to hold them accountable for what they had done. God was not asking them what someone else had done to make them sin; He was asking them to take responsibility for their own behavior.

How liberating it is when you realize that the Lord does not hold you accountable for the actions of others! You are, however, responsible for how you respond to them, regardless of how they treat you.

We may not be able to control the circumstances that come into our lives -- we had no choice about the home we were born into, our overall physical appearance, our upbringing, and many others factors that have influenced and shaped our lives. But, by God's grace, we do not have to be victims; we can control how we respond.

14. I will reap whatever I sow.

Galatians 6:7-8, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."

The choices we make today will have consequences down the road, not only in our own lives, but in the lives of others for generations to come. Every selfish, sinful, or indulgent choice I make today is sowing a seed that will reap a multiplied harvest.

And every act of obedience is a seed that will produce a multiplied harvest of blessing in my life and in the lives of those I love. The harvest is rarely immediate. But it will come.

15. The pathway to true joy is to relinquish control.

Matthew 16:26, "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it."

The only way to experience true freedom and peace is to let go of the reins -- to relinquish all control to God, believing that He can be trusted to manage all that concerns us.

16. The greatest freedom I can experience is found through submission to God-ordained authority.

Ephesians 5:21, "submitting to one another in the fear of God."

When we resist authority, we become more vulnerable to Satan's attacks and to sin, even as Eve sinned when she acted apart from the authority of her husband. On the other hand, when we willingly take our place under God-ordained authority, we are granted God's protective covering.

17. In the will of God, there is no higher, holier calling than to be a wife and mother.

For a wife and mother, no career, no hobby, no relationship, no priority is more important under God.

Titus 2:4-5, "These older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God." [New Living Translation.]