The journey of surrender:

                                                              Rules versus relationship.....
        Somewhere along the road we have lost the difference between these two. And they are very, very different things. Rules are things that must be obeyed or a consequence will follow. Rules are things that someone else has set as the law. And rules must be obeyed. And rules aren't always bad....but they are no replacement for relationship....ever.
       Relationship is something we pursue. Relationship is something between two or more people and relationship deals with emotions, needs and desires. So why do we confuse the two? When we look at how we interact with Christ....do we think it is more about rules or relationship?
        The two can resemble each other alot sometimes. And so what I have found is that the way to distinguish between the two....is the heart....the very spirit inside of us.  What is my motive in doing or not doing something? What is the reason behind me not participating or participating in something? Am I doing it because it is against the rules or am I doing it because my relationship with Christ would not be honored because of it.
    See.....it is like this....I am married. Therefore, I do not go anywhere alone with another man. Not because I am in a relationship with anyone else, and not because I am afraid that I could be swept away by someone else....it is because of my relationship with my husband and my desire to honor that above all else that I do not go alone with another man. It is because of my love for my husband that keeps me from doing certain things. It is like that with Christ for me.
       I do not listen to certain music because I do not think it honors my King. I do not watch certain shows or movies because they do not line up with what my King teaches in His Word. I do not dress a certain way because it would bring more attention to my body than to my King who lives in me and so I simply don't do it. Not because of a rule. Or a judgment....but because of the love I have for Him and the love He shows me every moment.

        Love is mentioned in the Bible quite a bit....551 times in the Old and New Testament in the NIV version....and so you would think that we would have a fairly accurate grasp of love....but we are not even close. We live in a world that is completely upside down when it comes to love. We think that love is a physical response to someone or that love is how we "feel" at the current moment....or maybe even that love is "just putting up" with harmful behaviors from someone. And so because we have the wrong view on love....on relationship....on rules....we live a life that is confusing to the world around us.
     God's Word is clear on how involved He expects to be in our life after we surrender our heart to His....and it is simply....everything. He expects us to honor Him....in EVERYTHING. He makes it clear that He is a jealous God and that He will not tolerate sharing our hearts with any other gods....and He also wants us to live a life that stands apart....is different than those around us. But we walk around clinging to "our stuff" and try and keep it separate it from our relationship with Christ....and friends....that will never work. We have over complicated it to such peril that many of us don't even know how to truly walk in Christ. The main reason for this confusion I believe is that we have forgotten how to study God's Word. Recently a poll was taken by Christianity today and it said that less than 18% of all church goers read their Bible daily....less than 18%!!!! This is completely spiritually tragic! Reading God's Word cannot be an option. This is our battle plan! This is the very letters of the King of King written to us! God's Word is priceless, a delight and a treasure that we have the beauty of holding in our hands and opening each and every day and to take this for granted is such a tradegy that I don't even have the words to express it.....how this must grieve our Father's heart!
      Without opening God's Word every day, we are fighting from a huge disadvantage.....and the enemy knows this. When we open God's Word every day and we soak in His truth....it changes the battle. We are now fighting from a position of authority. We are no longer bound by physical eyes that struggle to understand what is going on around us....because we have unlocked a spiritual key...which opens our spiritual eyes to see and hear God's Truth in ways we cannot do when we are not in His Word! And something begins to happen deep in the very depths of our spirit....it begins to long for the things of Christ. Things that bring glory and praise to Him. We start to see and hear this world around us differently....we start to see things that we have allowed into our lives because we thought they weren't really that big of a deal...and now we see that they are. And the surrendering begins....and it is a beautiful surrender.

     I wish we would just stop acting like things don't matter....they do. The enemy hates you if you are a believer. He wants to destroy you. He wants to deceive you. He wants to lull you into a numbness so that you forget that every day he is against you. That isn't written to create fear....no....we need to stand up straight, rooted in God's Word....and look our enemy straight in the eye and start using the authority that God has given us! We are told in God's Word how this ends for our enemy....and he is just a coward. A fallen angel who is so full of pride and arrogance that he gave up all the wonders of heaven to cling to his filthy hate. We need to quit being afraid and start living brave. We need to hold our swords up high and LIVE DIFFERENT than this tired, broken, hurt, and very confused world....
     This world is not my home. I am only here for a tiny, brief moment....and so are you. After that....we will spend eternity walking, breathing, smelling, tasting, working. We will have jobs and homes and family celebrations of epic proportions! We will meeet and talk with so many that up to that point have only read about....and we will see Jesus. We will see the scars in His hands and the love in His eyes.....and we will feel His arms around us in a hug that I can only dream of! This day WILL come....we will all bow on our knees to a risen Savior! Some of us will gladly fall to our knees with arms stretched wide in adoration....others will fall to their knees with anguish and grief as they finally realize that it is all true....that HE is TRUTH....but we will ALL bow. Which is surrender....so the day of surrender will come for all of us...and the King of Kings wants nothing more than for you to surrender now. Open your arms....bow your knee....and surrender to Him now....rather than later. Because He longs for a relationship with you. Not rules....not consequences....but a relationship. It is the one thing that the Creator of the universe continually pursues....you. And then dive in! Dive into His Word. Ask for help if you don't know how....we are ALL learning each and every day more and this is the journey that we are meant to walk together....helping each other up and encouraging when one of us is weak....and together we will walk this journey of surrender. What a beautiful journey to walk! A journey of our Father's heart....a journey of hope and love....a journey that never ends....ever....a journey of surrender!

   
   

The Undoing...

        Have you ever had the moment in your life when you just felt so undone...when your whole world seems upside down and your heart may alternate between crying out and surrendering everything? I believe we have all felt this at one time or another...I call this the undoing. 

       When I first became a mom, I had such dreams and hopes for my girls. I dreamt of what jobs they would have, who they would fall in love with, and many other things....all good and beautiful things. I prayed for their hearts to fall deeply in love with their King and for every chain and bondage to be broken. I did what I thought would help them along this journey of life to give them courage, a strong foundation, and a sense of family. And I thought that this would seal the deal if you will, for them to turn out exactly as I had dreamt they would...but I chose to forget about free-will. 

            This is where the undoing comes in...the undoing of my dreams...my plans...even my prayers. And total and complete surrender have to happen. I will be honest....it is painful for me. Painful to the point that many times I have been prostrate on the ground beside my bed with tears pouring down and my heart pounding furiously and my hands pounding the ground begging God to intervene. Letting go has been terribly, terribly painful for me...it has given me a tiny insight into what it must be like for my Heavenly Father to watch so many of His beloved children run away from Him. How His heart must ache for them!

        When you watch your children chose a path that is different than the one you prayed for....your heart hurts. You want desperately to stop them from making that bad choice or taking that wrong path or linking arms with that person that will only bring hurt to their heart. You want to yell and scream and beg them to stop. You want to wrap your arms around them and soak up all the hurt and anger they feel and replace it with the love you have for them but instead all you can do is open your hands...each finger spread out long and completely surrender them to Jesus..,..and it is SO hard. 

       As our children grow they make their own choices. They write their own story...and that is exactly what they need to do. None of them should be forced to walk the story that WE have written for them. This is something I still have so much to learn about....but I am surrendered to the undoing. I will cry more tears. I will at times, lie flat on the floor and ask God to forgive them because they do not know what they are doing....they don't understand their actions have such big spiritual implications. They don't understand fully what the enemy is doing to distract them and blind them so that they no longer hear or see truth clearly. So just like the prophets of old, we pray for our children. We ask God to forgive them and we battle on their behalf when they can't. We cover them in prayer and raise our sword...the Word of God...in battle every single day for them. And we surrender to the undoing in our life. We learn to accept....even welcome....the undoing. Knowing that God's plan and purpose for our children never changes. Knowing that in the undoing....comes beauty. It is in the trusting of our Saviors heart that we rest in even as the undoing causes pain and hurt....which brings beautiful growth. In us. In our children. This undoing....it is a GOOD thing. It is a kind thing from a loving God.
       Most likely you are right in the middle of some form of undoing in your life even now....maybe your marriage is falling apart, your children are walking a road you wish  they wouldn't, maybe you are just tired because it feels like the undoing has been going on now forever....simply....forever....and you are just tired. Dear friend....beauty is here....right in the middle of all this undoing. Beauty is rising from the ashes of this undoing....and soon....the beauty that is going to burst forth from all this undoing is going to leave you breathless and in wonder of how God can take such pain...such hurt....such.....UNDOING....and all the time was creating a beauty that we cannot even fathom right now....but we trust that it is there....because we trust our King.