Surrender to God; see what happens

Come to think of it, when they're translated, they're the scariest words in any language. The last thing we want is to give up control.

And yet, we're often smart enough to realize that we've messed up our own life--big time. We know we've made major mistakes. Nothing is going right. Our life, our very existence is miserable.

To let God take over, though is the most frightening, distasteful solution we can think of.

Maybe it's the word "surrender." We usually associate it with defeat, humiliation, and losing. Our world never considers surrender a good thing.

Fortunately for us, God is above this world, yet still intimately involved in it. Somewhere along the way, we got the wrong notion that things happen that even God has no control over, like hurricanes, tidal waves, or genocide. "If he's so good," we think, "why doesn't he intervene and stop them?"

Good question, but you can't sneak out of it that easily. We were talking about your life, remember? About why you're resisting surrender to God.

If we're completely honest, it's that we just don't trust him. Oh, we say we do, but when it comes to running our life, we'd rather stay in control, even if we're doing a lousy job of it. Some people, like drug addicts and alcoholics, turn to God only when they figure he can't do any worse running their life than they did.

When you think about it, it's sort of funny. Not only do we not trust God to do what's right, we think he's incompetent as well. He couldn't possibly do things better, could he?

We're also scared because surrender to God requires obedience. That's a pretty offensive idea too, isn't it? We don't like anyone telling us what to do. Like a spoiled two year-old, we want our own way.

Or maybe we think that if we surrender to God, he'll immediately ship us off to Africa to be a missionary. If that were true, Africa would be pretty crowded, because millions of people have reached the point where they've scooted over and given God the steering wheel.

One of the things I learned in college (and learned rather painfully), is that there are many, many people who are smarter than me. I may have been a wiz-kid in my high school, but that was a tiny little world. There are professors, doctors, attorneys, and computer programmers who are certifiable geniuses. Even so, I wouldn't trust any of those people to run my life.

Compared to God, the smartest person on earth is like an amoeba.

Got a good therapist? God's better. Got a wise life counselor? God is wiser. Got a good mentor? God is more experienced.

To surrender to God, you have to accept three truths:

• God is not only all-wise, he also knows the future;

• God can run your life better than you can;

• God wants only the best for you.

Don't wait until you hit rock bottom. Be smart. The sooner you surrender to God, the sooner he can start getting your life straightened out.

He can do it, but he won't step in until you ask him. But if you do, you'll be amazed at what happens.