Perfect Pace
by
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Introduction
The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
Do you crave peace and joy? Do you ever wish you could hand over your worries and anxieties to someone who would take care of them for you? Do you desire to be a person who is calm and serene, no matter what is going on at any given time? Do you want to be happy? Do you look at this list of questions and think, “Well, of course I do, but it’s just not possible.”?
I have written this book to tell you that no matter who you are or what is happening in your life, these things are all very possible. Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) Not only is it possible for you to be transformed into a person you didn’t think could exist, but it is promised.
God promises us that He will take care of each one of us if we believe in Him and His Son, Jesus Christ, and if we surrender ourselves to Him.
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19)
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:9)
Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. (Job 22:21)
“Submit to God”? “Surrender ourselves”? Hold on for just a second. That is no easy task. In the overwhelming majority of people, including me, the initial reaction to the idea of surrender in any form is resistance. We simply oppose the idea of handing over control of ourselves to anyone else.
As Christians, we are taught that God loves us. We like that part of the lesson. But then we must be taught about the other side of the equation, the part about how we love God. We must learn how God wants us to love Him in return. It should be easy for us to love God and to do anything He wants us to do, given what God has done for us.
Sadly, that is not the case for many of us. We may accept God’s love and grace, but we continue to focus on ourselves and on our own desires. Our actions betray us, even when our words sound rather convincing. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Romans 2:13)
An important reason God wants us to obey Him and to surrender to Him is because He loves us, and He wants the very best for us. We can be sure that God’s perfect love is the foundation of our relationship with Him. In I John 4:16, we are told: And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
When the pure love that God has for us produces true love in us for Him, real obedience and surrender are created. You see, when love is true, trusted, and reciprocal, obedience and surrender are right there with it. They are natural by-products of true love.
God is teaching me a great deal about love and its direct connection to surrender and obedience. He has made me keenly aware that these are areas in my life that are in need of attention and growth. Growing in love and in surrender to God may sound like a wonderful path we all gravitate naturally towards, but in harsh reality, it is a continuing battle between His will and our own selfish desires. Choosing to love God is the first step in the process of obedience and surrender. Our love for Him leads us to choose to obey God and to surrender to Him, every day.
God elected to teach me about love and surrender in a gentle, enjoyable way. He led my husband and me to adopt a dog who is the “canine Kim”. Our dog, Shane, has many characteristics and tendencies that mirror my own. God has taught me about my walk with Him by directing my attention to how my relationship with God parallels my evolving relationship with Shane. God’s illustration has been a stunning revelation for me.
God chose to teach me His surrender lesson on a typical day during a routine walk with Shane. There was nothing about the day to indicate that something monumental was in store for me. I was simply setting out on a walk with my dog like I do on most days. Sounds normal, right? The walk we took that day was anything but normal.
God used that particular walk to illustrate to me His profound truths about love, obedience, and surrender. I can tell you that, since that day, my perspective on loving God and on surrendering to Him has been altered dramatically. I see my walk with God in an entirely different light, thanks to His illumination, and my growth in the areas of love, obedience, and surrender continues to this day. I will never achieve a level of perfection in these areas, but I now feel a continuous desire to walk more closely with God.
Because of the profound effect God’s revelation has had on me and on my life, I have been led to share His surrender illustration with other people. I am certain God wants to use this illustration to allow you to get to know Him better and to develop a deeper sense of what your life would be like in loving surrender to Him.
May we all walk closely with our LORD and Master.
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About the Book
Do you crave peace and joy in your life?
Do you want to be happy?
We all desire these things, but many of us are too busy, too self-absorbed, or too imprisoned by the way that we have always operated to take the steps required to change our lives and to allow God’s peace and joy to flow into our everyday living.
I admit that I have been guilty of settling for less than God’s best plan for my walk with Him. At one time, I actually took pride in considering myself to be someone who was “in control” of my life. Then God taught me a lesson about surrendering to Him and to His will for me.
Perfect Pace gives you all of the details of the powerful surrender lesson that God revealed to me during a walk with our dog, Shane. The day God showed me the parallels between a walk with Shane and my walk with Him was life-changing. Since that day, I have not been able to look at either walk in the same way.
Every one of us is offered the opportunity to walk with God at His perfect pace in perfect peace.
About the Author
KIM BRYAN is a Realtor living in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, with her husband, Andy. She has two stepdaughters, Sheridan and Mackenzie, and a wonderful dog named Shane. Kim is committed to her walk with God, her family, her church, and her work. Hebrews 13:20–21 sums up Kim’s participation in the creation of this book: “May the God of peace…equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”