Surrendered and Reawakened

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Surrendered and Reawakened

As I SURRENDER to what

I don’t fully understand,

I can REAWAKEN to His glory

as He reveals what only He can.


Stuck. It may not be a word we’d choose to live by, but it sure is one (especially for the past couple years), with which many of us can identify.


Stuck by the crippling grip of fear.

Stuck under the weight of unforgiveness.

Stuck in the loneliness of isolation.

Stuck on the pedestal of pride.


No matter how you spin the kinda stuck you’re in, only God can truly set you free to begin again.


As I ponder and pray through the two words God’s placed on my heart for 2022, I was struck by (and ironically stuck in) two passages of scripture this morning — two passages about one church, two descriptions praising these people while at the same time pointing out the one thing that had them stuck, and that’s when those two words for 2022 hit a little different.


They stuck out to me in to get me unstuck.


As I SURRENDER to what

I don’t fully understand,

I can REAWAKEN to His glory

as He reveals what only He can.


Those two passages of scripture are Ephesians 1:3-21 and Revelation 2:2-5. I encourage you to go read the first one, a greeting by Paul to the beloved church of Ephesus as a reminder of all the blessings they have in Christ — blessings, We as children of God have inherited, too.


The second passage, I’ll include below — an encouragement from Jesus Himself, through the words of John in the book of Revelation to the church of Ephesus...


“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” ~ Revelation 2:2-7 ESV


There’s ALOT I don’t understand about God, about this world He created, about the people He placed in power, and about His perfect plan and the purpose He has in all of it.

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Release to Receive

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Release to Receive

“I want this one...no, this one...can I have both of them? Oh, wait, I really like this one, too!”

Have you ever been shopping with an excited, yet indecisive child? You know the one. Whether an average trip to the store, a special trip to spend money they’ve saved, or a visit to a souvenir shop the last day of vacation, wherever it may be, they hold up the works by wanting everything they see! They grab one thing and tuck it under their arm, freeing their hands for another item. They use the other hand to pick up something else, and pause to give consideration to each attention grabbing “thing” that they’ve grabbed to filled their hands.

Maybe a better question is this – How many times have we been like that indecisive child — desperately hold onto things, grasping them so tightly with our white knuckled fist, that we lose sight of the first thing that caught our eye, the other things we've not yet discovered, or forgotten what we truly desired in the first place? Sometimes we can want something so badly, we don’t even grasp the motivation behind the wanting?

God gives us each passions and desires He wants us to wholeheartedly pursue. However, we find ourselves in trouble when those desires become idols, and we elevate them to a status higher than the desires God wants for our lives.

We must release the things we want in order to receive the things He wants to give us.

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