Turn Your Gaze to Heaven

I categorize myself as a “control freak,” and I think I’ve been one my entire life. I struggle with completely surrendering my whole person to God. I want to hang on to something so that I feel like a part of me is “mine” to do what I want with.

The only problem with my mentality is that it is a complete contradiction to the Christian life. We live in a society that tells us to be independent, but God says to be solely dependent on him.

When I lose my desperation for God, I become self-reliant. A few weeks ago at church, the speaker made this point: “When men stop worshipping God, they start worshipping men with disastrous results.”

We were created to worship, and worship is a blessing. However, when we take our worship away from God and place it onto other things, we quickly create idols.

I feel as though I have been praying to “surrender all” for years. As I read through past journals, I see that phrase written on many different occasions and for many different reasons. Regardless, I’m starting to realize that I have never truly surrendered all.

My prayer is to be a woman who can honestly and willingly live out surrender:

“I abandon myself to Jesus Christ, offering myself to him for his purposes, his glory, and his kingdom. I commit myself to his revolution, and for the rest of my life to surrender my dreams, desires, and entitlements to him.”