Surrender Is Not Enough

This will wrap up our HEARING THE HEART & VOICE OF GOD series. Stop your tears, because what we are leaning into today is radical, and yes I just said radical (potentially bc we are heading to California for a few weeks:).

My friend and hero Kevin Dixon blew my mind the other day. I was telling him how SURRENDER has been one of the most important concepts for me as a joyfilled follower of Jesus. He nodded slowly while looking up at the ceiling as if he wasn’t totally sure about my statement, as if he was processing. What came out of his mouth next, was a mic drop moment (at least it was for me).

“Hmmm. Surrender is (indeed) a huge part of really living into what Jesus has for us, but I think there’s something even bigger! I would say CONTENTMENT…” and the conversation went on, and I still can’t shake it.

The problem with just leaving it at surrender is that, I can surrender my kingdom, will, goals and plans, and seek first Jesus’ Kingdom, but do it with a bitterness or discontentment. I could practice surrendering all, but not really trust that Jesus is holding all things together. I could cast my cares and surrender the outcomes of whatever I’ve been praying for to Jesus, but do it joyless.

Kevin was so right. The posture of contentment is life changing. The more that I’ve been living into this, the more that I’m seeing that SURRENDER + CONTENTMENT= JOY.

I’ve been really practicing a daily surrender about some work stuff for the past 2 years. It’s been really helpful, but these past few weeks I’ve been realizing that my surrender was not mixed with contentment. It has become more of a duty than a gift. The gift is, I get to surrender my issue to Jesus, and HE IS WORKING IN & THROUGH IT! He knows what He’s doing and has things for me in the process. I’ve been surrendering without taking time to just rest and be thankful for what I do have and what’s going right.

What is Jesus saying to you? When was the last time you just practiced gratitude or contentment? Especially as it relates to something difficult in your journey.

10000 MINUTES PRACTICE:

Practice being content in all circumstances.

• Whether with food, your car, others, or what Jesus is doing in your story...

• (read Phil 4:10-13) what do you learn?

My heart is morphing and becoming more joyfilled.

Text “10k” to “55678” if you want weekly text reminders to your phone. We’ll be sending out a few encouragements a week to help you practice Jesus all week long!