Coincidental surrender

“Humble yourselves therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” 1 Peter 6 NIV

“The He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23 NIV

I grew up going to church. If you went to the First Baptist Church of Bethel you experienced alter calls. Every Sunday. Making people step out from the pew to take that long walk up front to the alter was intimidating. I remember doing it. I also remember wanting to several times before I did it. Once you stepped out there really was no sitting back down.

Accepting Jesus as my Savior meant I was giving my life to Him. I did not adequately understand that concept when I was in middle school. We talked about what you received, eternal life in heaven being the main thing. But at the time I assumed some things got easier once I had Jesus on my team. I made some assumptions about the “getting” part.

I listen to Dr. Tony Evans quite a bit. He preaches at Oak Cliff Baptist church in Texas. I have heard him in person a few times, but I listen to him nearly every week. A few weeks ago, he preached a sermon that replaced the word commitment with surrender. He used the example of committing to read the bible. Commitment depends on my strength and my time. Surrender does not depend on me. It calls for me to give control of my time away. It gives way to whatever God wants to do in my life.

Prayer is different when I surrender. Instead of me telling God all of the ideas I have about how He can change something in my life, I just hand Him the issue. That does not come easy, but it is certainly a more accurate picture of the ideal alignment of my life. I am finding myself more silent internally. That may sound weird, but I can have a lot of mental activity revolving around an issue. The more I circle it, the more it becomes my issue instead of letting it be His. It has been over 45 years since I stepped into the aisle to meet Jesus. Maybe it is about time I learned this.

Work is perhaps the most common issue for me. I have a lot of windshield time and that allows a lot of voices to clamor for attention. But for the last few weeks I have found myself handing Him the day and just relaxing more about how it goes. He has blessed me with a job that is really unique and fits my personality. Why would He not use it?

So I just got home from the road this week and the trip is fresh in my mind. I have been doing it for over 15 years so you learn how to organize a trip. The number of leads you take and the miles they cover formulate a plan. Most weeks I am fairly accurate regarding how far I have to travel to make it work. However, sometimes God has different ideas. Monday I went through two full days of leads. I had to head home instead of staying out a night. I regrouped and had a great plan for today. Long story short, I went all the way through those too. Why?

The path I did not plan on getting to led me to a small town with maybe 100 residents. I had one lead and they said no at the door, it was 15 miles to the next town, but I remembered someone from this little town. I called our office and found his name, but his policy had dropped. I stopped at literally the only business left in town to ask where he lived. Guess who was standing in the lobby getting a flat tire fixed. Yup. I was more than 50 miles and a day early from where I should have been and I had to call our office knowing there was a name I was missing. He was standing in the room. Coincidence? I think not.

We went outside and he proceeded to tell me about his wife passing. He did CPR on her for over an hour and then watched EMT’s go for another hour before he asked them to let her go. Can you imagine? I listened to an old man weep as he remembered it.

I wish I could tell you that I had great words for him. I didn’t. I wish I could tell you that I helped him. I don’t know if I did. But it served as a reminder that if I just let the day happen, He is more present in it. If I pray asking God to let my spiritual eyes be open and my spiritual ears hear I not only enjoy the day better, I get reminded that God can use me. Being in the right place at the right time is too random to be true. I think we are constantly presented with God sized coincidence. Occasionally I see them for what He set in motion.

Praying for specific things is not a bad thing. Praying for a blessing is not a bad thing.

Aligning with the Creator no matter the path is challenging.

Although the situational outcomes may differ, if I look back at the evidence – my entire life – He has never once left His throne to leave me on my own.

Challenge: My most frequent, heartfelt prayer request may in fact be the thing I most need to surrender. Am I willing?

Rick Claiborn