To the one who cannot seem to let anyone else have more control than they do in their lives…lay it all down.

Over the last month and a half, “laying it ALL down” has been on my mind a lot. Whether it was in regard to changing my major even though it meant leaving the school of Ministry that I always hoped to be a part of. Or finding contentment in the fact that I could only communicate so much of the Gospel with the people I met in the Middle East due to our language barrier and limited timeframe. Or taking the painful, yet humble route and stepping back in people’s lives so that God could use others to continue His plan for them. Time and time again, it is as if every plan I made for myself got taken and replaced with a slice of humble pie. To say the least, it has not been an easy few weeks.

Nevertheless, amidst the confusion and aggravation, God has shown me how He is worthy of my surrender. After each and every hardship I have faced, when I decided to lean into Him, He never failed to bring hope, peace, and comfort.

As someone who struggles to give up control when things are seemingly going in every direction besides the one I had hoped for, I believe steps or “how to’s” are extremely helpful.

I fully agree that during our trials, we ought to rest in God’s soveriegnty, but I do not believe it is possible for most to say “Be still and know that He is God” to themselves and then somehow become cured of their control issue. So, after doing some research, I found a few really cool insights and courses of action that we as Christians can take when we feel useless before the plan God is unfolding.

Change your POV

First and foremost, we must have a change of perspective. I read this section from an article earlier today and I thought that it hit the nail pretty hard on the head. The article defined “surrender” in this way…

“Surrender means accepting that the battle has been won not on your terms, and you are willingly giving your life over to the authority of the winning side. It means taking a humble position and embracing what is over how you would have it.“

This may very well be the hardest step out of them all. Changing the way one thinks is not so easy, but it is biblical and necessary for the Christian. We are not only called to follow and obey God with our actions, but with our minds as well. We must not let the thoughts of our flesh be what rules us. Just because we accepted Jesus into our lives does not mean we are immune from the attacks of the enemy. In fact, scripture says it will be harder for the believers.

But fret not. There is sooo much more hope promised than there are trials. And that my friends, is our gateway to victory.

I love the song “So will I” by Hillsong Worship for a lot of reasons, but one being that there is a lyric saying, “If You left the grave behind you, so will I.”

Reread that for me. If you think about the life Jesus lived, the grave He deserved would have been nothing because He was perfect and would not have been forced to experience any judgement. Yet the death He deserved is not the death He endured. When Jesus was on that cross, He took on the weight of the world. He took on EVERY SINGLE person’s death that they should’ve experienced because of their sin. Yet because of His power, He was able to leave the grave behind. The grave with the weight of the world’s sin, Jesus claimed victory over so that we as God’s beloved creation, could do the same.

His death was so that we may live in abundance of all He is. That being; peace, joy, love, comfort, healing, purity, forgiveness, and so on. Yet when we choose to let our fleshly worries take over, we grow a nasty pride in ourselves that pushes us to hold on to all we have. Yet this pride is not what Jesus hoped and intended us to live with. Rather, we have been blessed with the freedom from the bondage of sin and the burdens it brings.

So how can one change their point of view? Well, as hard as it may be, we ought to follow what God says all throughout scripture. His word must be so familiar to our hearts so that when we have the thoughts of fleshly desires to control, we have the humility of letting God win the battle by bringing Him into every part of our lives.

Proverbs 3:5-6 is a great verse that reflects one of God’s promises to stay faithful and by your side any time you lay it all down.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
And do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make your paths straight.”

Letting Him be your influence

This seems pretty easy, no? Simply trust in God and lean on Him. Eh…not so much (at least for me). There are battles in our minds each and every day as we attempt to fight off sin. Just like we have to make those decisions to consistantly choose obedience with our actions, we must recognize the importance of choosing what we fill our minds with.

In a world that is captivated by “influencers”, it can be hard to see God with that title because the modern meaning of it has become someone who has a huge platform on things like tiktok or instagram. And the last time I checked, God isn’t posting weekly youtube videos or funny reels.

I cannot stress this enough. If we want a change in our mindset that actually lasts more than a few days, we must look into how we can let God be our main influence. The one who is love, peace, compassion, hope, etc. is the one we ought to be tuning into the most. How? Cliche, but read your Bible, join church groups, volunteer and serve others, really pay attention during those Sunday sermons, listen to Christian podcasts…I could go on and on listing the ways in which we can gain a deeper understanding of the written Word of God He gave us, the Bible, but for time sake, I’ll leave you with those.

If you didn’t notice, there was one popular form of connecting and growing with God that I did not list…PRAYER. Why? Well, I believe prayer is one of the greatest ways of allowing God to be your influence and one of the best gifts God gave us, so I figured it deserved a little more explaining.

Prayer is not just an opportunity to ask God for help. It is the 24/7 call line that we have the blessing of using for FREE any day, time, or place. It is the way in which we as broken, unworthy humans get a chance to speak to the holy, perfect God. Not simply to assist in our darkest hours, although that is true, it is the way in which we can form a personal relationship with the God who created us. How amazing is that?!

Imagine if famous people we look to as influencers had a 24/7 call line available to you. You’d get to know them pretty well, and vice versa. Yet the sad truth about society today is that we often get so obsessed with being like famous people who many of us never even spoke a single word to, while simultaneously ignoring the almighty God who is reachable any and every second of the day. I have seen countless instagram accounts made to “fangirl” over influencers like Harry Styles or Emma Chamberlain. Based off the hundreds of posts, I gurantee you they can tell me a lot about those people. However, many of us Christians can barely list the top 10 characteristics we love about God being so close to us. Now I am not shaming anyone, I am definitely guilty of taking for granted the time God gave me to talk to Him and learn all I can.

Nevertheless, what I have come to learn during these weeks of laying it all down, is that without prayer, and inviting God into my battles and normal everyday life, there is no way He can be a strong enough influence to me that will make a change.

Yes, God knows everything about everyone, but He is not a God who forces Himself upon us. He is a patient God and one who gives us the freedom to choose how present we want Him in our lives. The power behind prayer is not determined by the spirituality of a Christian. It is determined by the power of the one whom we are speaking to, God. And when we invite Him into our every circumstance, we are surrending control and allowing His will to be done.

Now please hear me out. What I have realized over trial and error, is that surrenndering things to God is a lifelong process. It is one that we must do EVERY SINGLE DAY. Because just as God’s mercies are new everyday, so are the temptations of the enemy. We live in a world of sin and there will always be symptoms of that in our lives. So my friend, when people tell you to “pray everyday”, it is not because Christians need to mark it off their holy checklist. Rather it is because we are never going to be strong enough to fight off sin on our own. We need the help of the Father and it is through prayer that we can show humility by acknowledging our need for Him.

Who we let be our influence is who we let take up our time. May we hunger for a relationship with God so that we no longer have to be bound by the weight of trying to control everything.

Understand Your Role in the Season

As we build a foundation and value for surrendering in our minds, one of the biggest things I have noticed plays a major role in the process of laying it all down is understanding we serve a God of seasons. Our circumstances will change dozens of times over the span in of our lives. Sometimes, we are meant to be in a certain school or job, and after a year, God could be leading you elsewhere. Change can be seen as good or bad. Personally, I am not the greatest fan of it. I dream about a 9-5 job, eating oatmeal every morning, and having the same routine every weekday. But that is not always the way in which God works.

While I was in college, I moved houses, change my major like 5 times, had 2 different jobs, moved from serving middle school ministry to high school ministry, lived out of a suitcase every 1-2 weekends because I went home a lot, and made schedule after schedule for this blog before I finally found a way to manage it. For someone who likes the same exact routine everyday, this wasn’t it. But God showed me a lot during college and in the last month of summer.

I probably went through 45289375 seasons in the last year (I may be exaggerating a little but you get the point). It was hard but while learning how to lay down all I had, meaning giving up all control too, I learned that when it is in God’s hands, it always ends up working out. Maybe not in the way I had hoped, but there is always a season of waiting before a tree produces fruit.

Our God is sovereign and for the control freak, that may not always be easy to submit to. But allow me to encourage you with this; it is possible to lay it all down. It may take blood, sweat, and tears but the freedom of no longer bearing the weight of your world on your shoulders is a feeling so worth working for. When you no longer have to worry about how YOU are going to solve the issue, you can learn to focus on what role you are supposed to play in your current season.

We were never made to be the one to figure out life. And thank God that Jesus made a way for us to not have to. Whether you are meant to encourage others, lead a group to make a change, or simply step back and be still, believe that there is a purpose in your role and that God will open the right doors at the right time.

I have no idea who said this but, “bloom where you are planted”. You do not have to take over the whole garden. Let God be the director of your paths and stop trying to be the game master of a game you had no part creating. There is pain in the process towards humility, indeed. But there is so much more hope and joy in the life of those humbled.

Praise Him in every circumstance. The scenerio may change but our faithful and Holy God does not.

So my dear friend, again I encourage you…lay it ALL down.