We\u2019re back from a week at church camp.\u00a0 It was a great week with no major problems — except for eight-year-old grandson Jeremiah falling off the climbing rope and spraining his ankle.<\/p>\n
And a personal challenge for me.\u00a0 When we hooked up our eighteen-foot-long trailer (which we dubbed \u201cThe Little Tin Box\u201d), the floor was quickly awash in water.\u00a0 We traced the source to a leak in our fresh water tank.\u00a0 This was quickly remedied by turning off the water — which meant that we had to do without running water for the week.\u00a0 This wasn\u2019t too difficult, since the hydrant was nearby.\u00a0 It was just pesky and inconvenient.<\/p>\n
As I lugged in the bucket of \u201cflushing water\u201d\u00a0 for the bathroom, I thought, \u201cAt least at home I have running water.\u00a0 I may not have a refrigerator and my carpet looks nasty –but I can manage as long as I have water.\u00a0 I won\u2019t do this long term!\u201d<\/p>\n
And the Lord convicted me of that thought.\u00a0 Do we give God ultimatums?\u00a0 Should I say, \u201cI\u2019ll be glad to obey You as long as it isn\u2019t too <\/em>troublesome?\u201d\u00a0 If God wants me living in a 34 -foot travel trailer (which He does) I should be happy there, no matter what the inconvenience.\u00a0 Who am I to dictate to God about how He provides for me?<\/p>\n So much of the Christian life is about surrender.\u00a0 We surrender all to Him in salvation — giving up our \u201cright\u201d to be the god, the one in charge of our lives.\u00a0 And our walk with Him is one of continually giving up.\u00a0 It popped up again in my daily Bible reading today: \u201cBringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.\u201d (II Cor. 10:5)<\/p>\n The blessing is that God is a good God.\u00a0 Every time we turn loose of something that has become too important to us, He grants us something better.\u00a0 In my case, the \u201csomething better\u201d than running water was peace.<\/p>\n If we have limits — if we say, \u201cI\u2019ll go this far and no further in following You\u201d — we set ourselves up to worry.\u00a0 What if I lose this precious thing I own?\u00a0 What if I have to do something I don\u2019t want to do?\u00a0 What if…. What if……<\/p>\n The cure for the \u201cwhat ifs\u201d is surrender. If I have given everything to God, then it is no longer mine to guard and hang onto.\u00a0 I am free.\u00a0 I trust Him to give me what I need at the right time.\u00a0 He can keep my \u201cstuff\u201d for me or remove it.\u00a0 He is all I really need.<\/p>\n Is anything worrying you today?\u00a0 There is a way to get rid of the worry and to have freedom. \u00a0 Bring it to God — and surrender.<\/p>\n Eating to live and living for Christ, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re back from a week at church camp.\u00a0 It was a great week with no major problems — except for eight-year-old grandson Jeremiah falling off the climbing rope and spraining his ankle. And a personal challenge for me.\u00a0 When we hooked up our eighteen-foot-long trailer (which we dubbed \u201cThe Little Tin Box\u201d), the floor was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":423,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSusan Jordan Brown<\/p>\n