Total Surrender

Psalm 37:3-5, "Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good, so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on his faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass."

Ever since the first time I laid eyes on this verse, it has been one of my favorites! Who wouldn't like receiving the desires of their heart?

That's the part that I think most of us would focus on out of these three verses. They hold incredible promises! We shall be fed; God will give us the desires of our heart, and God will bring all of this to pass.

There are a lot of things in these verses that require something of us first, though... To sum them all up, it comes down to total surrender.

We like the part about receiving good things from God, but we don't necessarily like our part!

We're told to, "Trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) in the Lord and do good, so shall you dwell in the land and feed surely on his faithfulness, and truly you shall be fed." (verse 3).

What's our part? To trust in the Lord and do good.

In verse four, we find that if we, "Delight yourself also in the Lord... He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart."

Why must we delight ourselves in the Lord? The answer is simple. Once we begin delighting ourselves in God, our desires change. We no longer are absorbed by selfish ambitions, we now want what God wants, and we begin agreeing with God's plan for our lives.

Finally, in verse five, we're told to, "Commit your way to the Lord [roll and repose each care of your load on Him]; trust (lean on, rely on, and be confident) also in Him and He will bring it to pass."

Have you ever done everything in your power to get what you want? I know that I have. God wants us to do our part, but He more wants us to ask Him for all that we need because He is truly the only One Who can ever make us whole.

As I read these 3 verses, I see how I can be fully satisfied, and it's in a way that my human thinking would never comprehend. The answer is total surrender. Total surrender to God. We must fully trust Him. We need to surrender our own wants and desires and selfish motives and do good. We must stop delighting ourselves in things that will never make us whole and begin delighting ourselves in the Lord who makes our cup overflow. Finally, we must let go of what we are trying to chase after in life and begin committing our way to the Lord. Only then will we ever find the full satisfaction that we are so deeply longing for.

I've shared before that I have a difficult time with living in the moment. I'm constantly wanting to progress in life. This year I went from one thing to another at a very fast pace. This time last year I was still trying to finish high school, and I had just got my driving permit in the month of October. Since then, I've received my license, got my first job, bought my first car, and nearly finished a semester of college. All of these things have been milestone markers, but now that the changes are slowing down, I'm praying, "Lord, what's the next step. I don't want to get stuck in life. I want to continue following the course You've set out for my life." Now I'm thinking, "I still have moving out to think of, being able to support myself, getting married, becoming a wife and mom, and so many other things that still have to take place."

That is why these three verses comfort me so much. They help me remember that I don't need to fear tomorrow because as long as I trust in God, delight myself in Him, and commit my way to Him, He will make sure that the path for my life is taken care of, even if it's not the path I would've imagined for myself.

Do you, like me, worry about your future way too much? I encourage you today to begin casting your cares on the Lord, living in today instead of the past which is behind you and the future that you don't know what it will bring. Trust that God really will keep you fed in every need that you have. Delight yourself in him instead of in other relationships, a steady income, or whatever else you may think will bring you fulfillment. Lastly, commit your way to the Lord, and watch Him take care of you fully! Totally surrender to God today, and just wait and see how much peace that brings!

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank You that I have all that I need in you! Thank You for being all that I need so that I can be confident in You and be able to totally surrender to Your will. Lord, I've seen myself constantly wanting to be progressing in life, and the thought of coming to a standstill scares me at times. Sometimes I'm afraid, but I pray that You'll help me to live confessing and living by my faith and not by my fears. In Jesus Name I pray.

Amen.