The Anxious Left Pinky

“So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor. Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (1 Peter 5:6-7 NLT). Give all my worries to God, sound great. I’ll just go ahead and do that right now and my anxiety will be no more. Sounds easy right? Well I won’t sugar coat it, it is not easy. It is incredibly difficult. To truly give all your worries to God means to surrender. It means to simply admit that He is strong and His way will be done. You must accept that you are weak. You give up your worries and accept that it is His will that will lead you. True surrender is difficult. Even the disciples that followed Jesus during His ministry had trouble surrendering. John Chapter 21 tells the story of Peter and several of the other disciples returning to fishing after the death and resurrection of Jesus. Peter was a fisherman named Simon when he first met Jesus. John 21 shows him returning to the activity after Jesus was resurrected. As one can imagine, this was a confusing time for the disciples. Jesus had been put to death and rose again and appeared to them. None of us have ever seen something like this in our lives so we can not even start to put ourselves in this situation. However, it is not hard to imagine that this would be a powerful and confusing time. So Peter fell back into the trap of doing what he had previously felt comfortable doing. He went fishing. He went back to being Simon in a way. But was this the plan that Jesus had for Peter? “A third time he [Jesus] asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.” (John 21:17 NLT). Peter was not meant to return to fishing. It was simply what felt comfortable at the time. Jesus appeared to Peter and reminded him of his new purpose. “Feed my sheep”. Of course Jesus isn’t literally talking about pet sheeps or a farm of sheep that Jesus owned. Jesus was talking about His children. He was talking about us. The people. We are Jesus’ children. Jesus was reminding Peter to continue walking the path of God. Peter was not meant to become Simon again. Peter was meant to lead others to Jesus Christ. Peter was supposed to start the church of Christ. But Peter had to surrender to the will of Jesus. Peter had to learn that he was not in control of His destiny. It was Jesus that would lead Him. If true surrender to God’s plans was hard for a disciple that followed Jesus, you can safely assume that it will be hard for you. Surrender is not easy. We have busy, complicated lives. We have responsibilities. Surrender doesn’t mean ignoring your responsibilities and just waiting on the couch for God to lead you. It means accepting that God’s plan is bigger and following that calling. Peter was meant to lead others to Jesus. If you read the Book of Acts, you will see that it wasn’t the easy option. Peter could have just lived a quiet life out fishing from his boat. But that wasn’t what Peter was meant to do. He had to surrender to God’s will and follow the path he was supposed to. What will your surrender look like? I can’t answer that question for you. But I do know that it’s not running back into your old ways at the first sign of stress. Surrender can be uncomfortable. It can mean going out on a limb. It can mean doing the right thing even if it adds a new task to your life. It can mean choosing to show patience when you don’t want to. It can mean accepting that God will lead you where you need to go and deciding to follow Him. “So don’t worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (Matthew 6:34 NLT). Surrendering can be simply accepting that you need to focus on today and not think about tomorrow. Worrying about the future is a common stressor for many of us, including myself. We start combining tomorrow's worries with today’s worries. Doing so does not make tomorrow go any better. It just adds unnecessary stress to our life. Surrender means accepting God’s plan for you. Tomorrow will go how it is supposed to go. There are a million scenarios that you could think up that may affect tomorrow or your future. These what ifs usually amount to nothing. Trust in God and surrender. If you are like me, you will have to surrender continuously. Everytime I say that this will be the time I fully surrender, I find myself trying to forge my own way in no time at all. In fact, I find myself surrendering daily. Remind yourself that God has a plan and surrender. Again, this is not an easy task. It takes reminders, dedication, and patience. Surrender will bring you peace if you are simply willing to actually surrender. Let go, give it to God. I used to think of surrender as a one time thing. I told God that I surrendered. Good to go I thought. It did not take long to realize that I was wrong. Day in and day out, old habits would resurface. I started falling back into the same worries and thoughts that I had the last time I surrendered. It took me time to realize that surrender was a constant thing. Only by continuing to surrender daily was I able to actually maintain my current peace.