Befriending God: A 3-Day Reading Plan on Surrenderنمونہ

Through Mary’s story, we see that true surrender releases us from the bondage of our need for control and into the intimacy of radical dependence and trust. Mary would not be able to control the circumstances of Jesus’ birth. The Savior of the world would not be born in a palace in the presence of royalty. The King of kings would not be given a room in the local Inn. Mary would deliver our Deliverer in a humble stable. She would not lean on her own understanding but trust the sovereignty and provision of the One who called her into a profoundly personal journey through mystery.

Mary questioned the impossible at the inception of her call and then surrendered to and endured it as she entered the unknown circumstances in which she would give birth.

She yielded to the formative activity of God in a series of unpredictable events that would give way to the glory of angels and the awe of heavenly hosts. Mary’s radical submission prepared her, moment by moment, to mature into a depth of trust that would steady her heart for a lifetime of letting go.

What would Jesus be like at age two? How would she feel as He took His first wobbly steps onto the green grass of a world He had spoken into being? What would it be like to know he could look into the countenance of any person and see through the looking glass of their heart? How would she comfort the One who came to comfort the world? How would she raise a supernatural, unrepeatable miracle, a miracle who needed food to stay alive and sleep to function? There was so much to ponder.

Mary would have to relinquish control and through this process of surrender she was not forming herself; she was being formed.

For those who wrestle with the test of surrender, control is the dopamine hit of choice. Yet often the more control we secure the more we feel the hollowness of our own independence from God. Our control doesn’t satisfy us on a soul level. Even when it results in visible achievement or success, it is not the inner salve our souls seek. Control begets control, keeping us enslaved to a formula that binds us—on a spiritual level—in a cycle that prevents us from living in true freedom. Our surrender to God Himself positions us to trade our best-laid plans for the possibility of being surprised by an all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-present God.

Prayer

God of the Impossible. The first and the last. The One who was and is and is to come. Your kingdom is a kingdom that knows no end and there are places you are present to that our eyes have not yet seen. Give us grace to surrender to Your sovereign plan. May the power of Your Spirit water and nourish the incorruptible seed of faith we have been given to believe that no word from You will ever fail. And when you come to the doorstep of our hearts and the echo of your voice reaches our hearing, may our answer be a mirror to Mary’s surrender: Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.