Submerging Surrender
There is a laughter, innocence, and excitement that has been building up in you as you begin to long more and more for the overwhelmingly abundant water in front of your youthful eyes...
There has been an anticipation that has building with every piercing ray of sunlight that you have felt on your skin... Your anticipation and longing for the water in front of you only grows with every step as you imagine the overwhelming rush of water that soon will overtake you. Running faster and faster ahead, you disregard the hot ground that's underneath your swift, yet exposed, feet as you are more than ready to plunge into the clear and pure waters that lies invitingly in front of you. You long to escape the piercing heat that has been overwhelming ever since the temperatures started to increase ...
Your youthful innocence allows no room for fear concerning what lies underneath the alluring refuge of water that lies in front of you... and you are now closer than ever as you begin to approach the rock that overlooks the last obstacle that lies between you and that which you have unknowingly been preparing for...
In a moment of youthful ecstasy, you hold your nose and surrender the land that your small feet once was enslaved to. In that moment, with everything you surrender what's behind for that which is abundantly greater that the land that you have left you behind. There is only air between you and the submerging waters that soon will overtake you...
... you close your eyes with a lack of regret, a lack of apprehension a lack of fears.
As the water wraps around you, you take a moment to simply enjoy the reality that you are completely submerged as you fall deeper and deeper into the refreshing and renewing water... and there is no where else you rather be.
"For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together... For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross." - Colossians 1:16, 19-20 (ESV)
Do you remember the feeling of jumping into water as a kid and the thrill that came with it?
There is something about water that brings the memory of being the carefree child of days past that would find a joy staying underwater long enough to just to feel the overwhelming peace that being submerged in water would bring... and sitting out on the rocks overlooking one of the Great Lakes of Michigan that surrounds me, I begin to LONG to abandon my dry clothes... and my belongings... and feel the overwhelming joy of being submerged once more...
I can't help but feel overwhelmed as I look out on the rippling abundant water that surrounds me as I hear, see, and feel wave after wave crash at my feet.
Oh how we have a Creator who overwhelming desires us to experience the reality of His Love as abundant and intimate as the enormous and sweeping water that we once surrendered to with joy and youthful abandon!
As the wind brushes my hair to the side, and the gentle waves crash at my feet, I can't help but desire a similar purity and purpose as the gentle waters possess... with every brush of the wind... and every rise and fall of the gentle waves... they yell that there is so much more than my inefficiencies and fears that prevent me so often from surrendering the disorienting distractions in my life that truly do not love me! I so easily settle for temporary distractions and pleasures over the overwhelming and refreshing intimacy that a life fully surrendered to Jesus brings!
No matter where you are as you read these words... I pray that you experience the refreshing truth that surrender brings....
No matter WHERE You are or have been, NO MATTER the distance and magnitude of your running and rebellion, YOU have been created for a plan and purpose that goes FAR beyond your comprehension and FAR beyond your current emotional status or present circumstances. Oh how our Creator, YOUR Creator has a Name... and in that Name there is freedom, forgiveness, and identity!
Our Creator's Love goes FAR beyond ANY and ALL love that exists in this entire universe and is NOT tainted by even the SMALLEST microcosm of selfish impure corruption... but in our Creator love has its origin and source.
There is a love that is pure, true, faithful, passionate, and intimate... there is a love that offers to submerge any and all of the fifth and chains that suppress the youthful faith and surrender within us that LONGS for someone and something greater than anything this world can offer! Oh how there is a love that is more abundant than our fears and follies!!
You are not an afterthought. You are not abandoned. You are not "too far gone". You are not a lost cause. Oh how you matter to Your Creator, Savior, and Sustainer! May we keep this clear always: Our distractions do NOT love us.
It is never too late to throw our hands up and surrender what we are holding onto... It is never too late to go back to that kid that we once knew so well that was not afraid to surrender the safe and comfortably of familiar land... for the abundant and refreshing water that holds us gently and breaks our fall.
Jesus,
though not always in ways that we understand, help us see that there is NOTHING that we can surrender to You that you will fail to sustain and offer that which is abundantly greater than that which we release to You! Every chain... EVERY chain... EVERY chain of ours, You broke free every chain of ours on the cross and YOU ARE FAITHFUL to make us more like You! Like waves that rise and fall on the rocks, through time Your faithfulness, Love, and Truth washes over and refines our rough edges. May we surrender each and every broken chain to You and embrace innocence again.
Help us surrender to Your faithfulness to renew us day by day like the renewing water on a warm summer day.
"Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us." - Ephesians 3:20
You redeem always.
Your faithfulness and provision knows NO end.
We choose today to rest in this promise
Jesus,
You are faithful to renew us ...
Help us trust, surrender, and step out as You call us day... by day... by day...
"When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior. Because of his grace he made us right in his sight and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life." - Titus 3:4-7 (NLT)
"... Your youthful innocence allows no room for fear concerning what lies underneath the alluring refuge of water that lies in front of you... and you are now closer than ever as you begin to approach the rock that overlooks the last obstacle that lies between you and that which you have unknowingly been preparing for...
In a moment of youthful ecstasy, you hold your nose and surrender the land that your small feet once was enslaved to. In that moment, with everything you surrender what's behind for that which is abundantly greater that the land that you have left you behind. There is only air between you and the submerging waters that soon will overtake you...
... you close your eyes with a lack of regret, a lack of apprehension a lack of fears.
As the water wraps around you, you take a moment to simply enjoy the reality that you are completely submerged as you fall deeper and deeper into the refreshing and renewing water... and there is no where else you rather be."
-J
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV)
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvJVvEXHoDE&w=560&h=315]
Through Jesus, there are NO weaknesses, NO fear, and NO brokenness that will have the final word...