Surrender to Be Free

2020 has been a year full of uncertainty, unknowing, and unrest. It is safe to say everyone has had a recent encounter with disappointment; that feeling of not being able to get up in the morning, feeling afraid, and feeling discouraged is real, but how do we deal with it. As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, a traditionally stressful time for anyone, we need to take a look at ourselves and how we handle fear and discouragement. How do we take these feelings and get out ahead? How do we not let these valid feelings take us over and win?

Think back to a time you felt disappointed, afraid, or discouraged? How did you handle it? Did you let it take you over and consume your thoughts - or did you come out ahead. It’s safe to say everyone at one point has let these feelings take them over. What sets people apart is how they handle those feelings; what do they do in that split moment they feel one of those feelings?

We are going to travel back in time and look at Joshua 1. For context, Moses had just died, and GOD places this tremendous responsibility on Joshua to lead the Israelites into the promise land. GOD said to Joshua, “wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you.”

Joshua 1: 6-9 says:

“Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. (7) Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do.(8) Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. (9) Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

That feeling of afraid, discouraged, and disappointment go hand in hand. A key concept to take from this passage is that God didn’t say don’t feel afraid; He didn’t say don’t feel discouraged. The essence of what God was saying was that just because you feel afraid doesn’t mean you have to be afraid. Just because you feel discouraged doesn’t mean you have to be discouraged. Just because you have fear doesn’t mean fear has to have you. Statistics show us that, in situations that we as humans are uncomfortable with, our default settings are anxiety and discouragement.

GOD has given every one of us a destiny, a purpose in life. And no, you are not Joshua leading millions into the promise land, but GOD has given you a purpose, a destiny. “You have a destiny.” We all have a destiny—however, the bigger the destiny, the bigger the enemies.

This was critical for me personally to realize because I am generally very hard on myself. Still, more than that, soon after I had this realization, I was working a summer camp, and I had this 9-year-old girl come up to me; we will call her Addison. Now I had known this girl for maybe a week, but this day something was different, she was limping, and she had a black eye. During the day, she came up to me; she wanted to tell me something. She told me that she was continually being told, at home, that something was wrong with her.

She then proceeded to tell me about how that morning, her father had pushed her down the stairs.

I didn’t know what to say; I stuttered through my response, trying not to say the wrong thing. I was not prepared for her to say that. Now I got her the help she needed. Here is, in essence, what I told her.

God has a plan. “I know you are afraid, but GOD is by your side, ready to face your fear with you. You do have a purpose in life.”

She was discouraged with life. She didn’t want to move forward. She, though only nine, understood this complex concept that GOD was by her side.

She asked me, “all I need to do is reach out?”

“Yes. All you need to do is reach out,” He is there, ready to take your hand and walk you through the valley of the shadow of death. He is there, prepared to walk with you.

In everyone’s life, there will be times you feel afraid. There will be times where you feel discouraged. Reach out if you need help, reach out as Addison did.

Now in the King James Version of the Bible, the phrase “fear not” appears 62 times. Every time God says, “Fear not,” He adds a promise to be there with us, to help us. When God says, “Fear not,” it’s an invitation to trust and grow our faith.

I’m talking about God when I say reach out. But you can reach out to each other as well. You see, God calls us to be the body of Christ, and to do this, we need to at least talk to each other, talk about what our struggles are.

Now I am not going to lie; you will be met with disappointment. Sometimes life takes a weird turn, and disappointing things happen.

I will tell you this; disappointment is dangerous; it can cause you to set your expectation at the level of your experience and miss the purpose of God in your life.

It is real how we live in the invisible prison; it is real how we can't get outside of our frame of reference. Jesus said, "I came to set prisoners free" what if the place he wants to set you free the most is the area of your expectation. What if he is doing exactly what you asked, just not the way you wanted.

Maybe that's what faith is. 

"Is that it" John the Baptist wanted to know. "I was excited about it. I thought you were going to have a fork in the fire." W-T- John said, "where's the fork, where's the fire? Jesus said, where is the faith – Do you trust me or not? Am I still God or not? Am I working things for the good only when they feel good, or can you trust that silence too?

How do we move past the feeling of fear, discouragement, and disappointment? As I said briefly, faith, we need to have faith. We need to hold fast on to what we believe. 

Hebrews 4:14: 

"So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us HOLD FAST to what we believe."

It would be terrifying to admit our failures to a perfect God if Jesus weren't our High Priest. But because Jesus became man, He can deal gently with our weaknesses because He understands our problems. He suffered the same temptations we do, but not in sin; He offered a sacrifice, but for the sins of the world, not His own. That combination of glory and understanding beckons us to pray confidently for God's grace and mercy on an ongoing basis. Hebrews 4:14 gives us the confidence in the scripture that God is always willing and able to shower us with the understanding and grace we need; our part is to continually seek God and surrender to Him.

Now, how do we process these feelings? How do we process failure? Don't categorize an experience negatively when it happens; give it some time and see what it is. When you think you failed, when you feel discouraged or feel disappointed, you have two options.

1. You can sit in that feeling, think about how that experience doesn't help you or the situation.        

 – Fear

2. You can categorize the experience as a learning experience, reach out and grow.      

  – Faith

These feelings tend to snag our attention, and we focus on them; having faith does not eliminate the distraction; it merely shifts the attention.

Romans 5:3-5: 

"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. (4)And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. (5)And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love."

Right after Jesus fed the 5,000 in the Gospel of Matthew, we see a fantastic example of this.

Matthew 14:22

“Immediately after this,

Jesus insisted that his disciples get back into the boat and cross to the other side of the lake, while he sent the people home.”

Spoiler alert: Jesus is all-knowing; for those of you who know this story, you know that Jesus just sent His disciples on a boat and into a storm. The Bible says He made them go into a storm. He knew it was not a good time to cross. However, He gave them his word that He will see them on the other side.

He knew He was sending them into a storm, but He never took his eyes off of His disciples.

Especially in 2020, we all may feel down in the middle of a storm; when is it going to be over? He gave you His word. However, you see the thing that doesn’t work about his word; it doesn’t work if you don’t trust it in the meantime. You need to trust it when you feel like you’re in the middle of a storm or when things are going well.

The Bible then says He went onto a mountain top to pray.

Matthew 14:24

“and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.”

In one corner, raging on the open sea, in the dead of night is the wind. It is fierce, it is chilling, it is dangerous, and it is deadly. In this corner is the wind, the trials of life, the situation you never wanted to get into.

In this corner is the wind, the feelings that tell you to curse God, die, and give up on any hope of making it to the other side.

In this corner is the wind. Against you.

He didn’t stop it. He waited until the fourth watch. How the Romans did their watch at night was split into four quarters like football. 6 pm-9 pm was the first watch; 9 pm-midnight was the second watch, midnight to 3 am was the 3rd watch, and 3 am-6 am was the forth.

He waited until they had rowed four to five miles against the wind, and then He shows up. Not when they wanted. He shows up not just to stop the wind. He shows up to show him, His opponent, that in HIS corner, weighing in at unlimited strength and potential, weighing in from eternity, He is for you, and He is stronger than whatever is against you!

Jesus came walking on water toward the boat, and the disciple in their FEAR cried out, “it’s a ghost,” and Jesus said, “fear not, don’t be afraid. Take courage. I am here!”

Peter called out, “If it is you tell me to come to you, walking on water. When God commanded him, he stepped out on the water. But Peter, seeing how strong the waves and the wind was, the text stats he was afraid and started to sink. But like in all the other examples, Jesus was there and reached out a hand a grabbed him, “ You have so little faith. Why did you doubt me?”

You see, God is always going to be there. You need to take a step of faith, put aside the feeling of being discouraged, the feeling of disappointment, and the feeling of being afraid. Fear or faith, one of them has to win.

In Matthew 16:24-25:

Then Jesus told his disciples, 

“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

 Give your fears to God, and you will be free.

Give your discouragement to God, and you will be free.

Surrender to God, and you will be set free.  

Surrender to Be Free.