We have all been taught that we should pray for God’s will in all things. We pray, “Not my will, but yours.” However, how many of us really do that? It is not that we do not want His will for our lives, but we think we know what His will is. We get it in our minds what we need from God and we expect Him to do that for us. We not only expect Him to do it, we expect it to happen when we want it to happen. We think we know what God’s will is and we think we know the time frame in which God should operate. The key to submitting to God’s will is to surrender everything to Him. We should let Him be in control of everything in our lives.

I know that sounds simple, but it is a lot harder than it seems. We have spent most of our lives trying to be in control of everything. We think we know what is best for us, and we think we know what is best for the people we love. Sometimes we pray to God almost in a ritualistic manner expecting Him to surrender to us; however, we must surrender to Him. He really does know what is best for us and His timing is perfect. We all have situations in our lives that we do not like. We want them to change, and we think we have the perfect solution. We pray to God, but when we do not get the results that we think are best, we become frustrated and begin to lose faith. If we would truly surrender everything to God in the first place, it would save us so much grief and frustration. Many times, it takes us surrendering to God to get the answer to our prayers.

Oprah Winfrey tells the story of how she got the part of Sofia in The Color Purple very often. If you have not heard it, I will summarize it for you. Oprah was obsessed with the book The Color Purple. She felt that she was meant to have a role in the film. She carried the book around with her all the time and even had extra copies with her that she would give to people so that they could read the book. She prayed and prayed that she would get a part in the movie. Oprah had never acted before, so the chance of her getting a part in the movie seemed unlikely, but she prayed anyway. After a while, she began to lose hope and could not imagine why God was not answering her prayers. It consumed her to the point that that was all she could think about. Finally, one day she felt like God told her to surrender it to Him. She was at a facility trying to lose weight. She went to walk around the track and while she was walking she sang the song, “I Surrender All.” As she was walking, one of the workers found her and told her that Steven Spielberg had called and wanted her for the part of Sofia in the movie. Her prayers had been answered, but it had to be in God’s time, and He had to know that she had truly surrendered it to Him.

We have to surrender things in our lives too. When we do surrender everything to God, we will have a peace and understanding about life unlike anything we have ever experienced before. When He does answer our prayers, and He will, we will say to ourselves, “Now I get it.” Another way we are supposed to surrender to God is when He asks us to do something we should do it. God truly works through people, and He wants to work through all of us. We have all heard people say, “I felt like God wanted me to call you and tell you something” or “I felt led of God.” When He asks us to do something, we should submit to His will and do it. Sometimes He will ask us to do things that are hard for us to do, but we have to do it anyway. When we surrender to Him and do what He asks us to do, we will be a blessing to others and in turn God will bless us.

So, if you are praying for something that you think is best for you or someone you love and you feel like you are not getting the results you want, surrender it to God. That could be what He is waiting on. If you feel like God has a job for you and He has placed it on your heart, surrender to Him and do it. When we truly surrender to God, He will bring peace into our lives that will go far beyond our understanding and PEACE MATTERS!

~Dan~