Surrendering – How do you do that?

I recently went to a Fearless Women meeting. These meetings are Christian-based to help women overcome anxiety. I have suffered with anxiety for several years but, for the past year, it has been a debilitating illness. It is time to take back my life and Fearless Women has helped with that.

In the latest meeting, they talked a lot about surrendering to God’s will. In other words, stop trying to dictate your life and let God’s plan take place. While this is an easy thing to say, it is not necessarily an easy thing to do, especially for someone with anxiety. We try to control every aspect of our lives so that there are no surprises. We want to know what is going to happen so that anxiety doesn’t creep up and throw us off balance.

I have found so much information and quotes about surrendering to God’s will. All it takes is listening to Christian music to hear about how we are supposed to trust God and his plan for us. Let go and listen to Him. “Jesus take the wheel.” But how do you do that? How do you stop trying to micromanage your life and just “let go and let God”?

The most important and most successful way to accomplish this is to pray and pray often. Pray for God to give you strength to accept your life and what comes up. Pray for God to help you to keep the faith during the good and bad times, especially those bad times. That is when it is easiest to doubt God’s plan for your life.

We have to trust that God’s plan is the right plan, even if we don’t see it in front of us at the moment. Will I get through my anxiety about unknown news? Can I hand that over to God and let him take control or will I have anxiety about it and let that control me? It’s so hard to let God have the only answers and wait for Him to show us his plan for us. It is so hard to not have anxiety during times of stress or suffering. How many times have we heard “Why God?”? Why do we not trust that God’s plan for our lives is the best one for us? The bible would tell us that we lack faith.

Now I don’t see myself as someone that lacks faith. I want to surrender my life to God but I know that will be a difficult thing to do thanks to my anxiety. I know that I will lack patience and understanding and want answers NOW. I know that my anxiety will control me at times. This is when I need to stop and pray for direction; pray for God to lead me to a solution.

Remember that we are on God’s timeline, not our own. We may not know answers to our problems right away but we have to have faith that those answers will be given in God’s time and in God’s way. We have to remember that God is all-knowing, not us. We may want a certain answer or solution but God may have a different idea for us. Having faith and praying are ways to ensure we stay close to God during times of stress and surrender our lives to Him.

What are your thoughts? Has surrendering your life to God come easy to you or do you struggle with this? There is no shame in struggling to give our lives over to God… it’s human nature to want to control our lives. Remember that we are all loved. We are all forgiven. We are all made for something special in God’s eyes. Surrender your life to God and feel that love in every aspect of your life. You can do it!