From Fighting to Surrender

You fight for it. When you out-right put your foot down, and stand your ground, and grit your teeth about it, so as to win. To get your way.

Because you feel the right.
And you feel the responsibility.
You feel the obligation.

To stand, so you fight.

You fight for it, you fight against it, you fight with it. All the time, it’s a fight. The reprimanding, the belittling, the proving your authority, over them. The arguing, the convincing, the proving your opinion, to them. It’s all a fight.

But, wait, there’s more.

There is. Because, really, the fighting goes so much deeper than your words and your actions. It does. And deep-down, we all know it, the fighting starts deep within your soul. The dealing with a guilty conscience, the hiding of the shame to cover your sense of failure, the proving of your value, of your worth, to Him. All the time, it‘s a fight - it’s a fight for your acceptance. You know it. We all know it.

When God says, in your immediate right-now, directly from within your fight, “I love you. Remember, I love you. I came and I died for you, remember. I came to set you free from the fighting. Remember, your worth has already been determined - at the Cross. Return to Me and you will find rest. You will, for I am with you. And I have won the battle, already, remember. There is no need to fight.”

And it‘s a good place to be, where you know His victory is all you have. Because, from there, surrender happens. And the good way is found. There, where surrender happens, where you can walk in it, you find rest.

So that, instead of the fighting flows understanding, reveals mercy, displays grace. Instead of the fighting, comes a standing in Christ, Who humbled Himself to death, even death on a Cross, for you. Instead of the fighting, brings surrender and humility and peace.

Because the fighting always stops when surrender happens.

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“Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls....” - Jeremiah 6:16