{"id":2032,"date":"2012-11-13T03:00:43","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T08:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/lettinggo\/?p=2032"},"modified":"2012-11-04T21:23:02","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T02:23:02","slug":"what-it-means-to-give-our-lives-to-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2012\/11\/what-it-means-to-give-our-lives-to-god.html","title":{"rendered":"What it Means to Give Our Lives to God"},"content":{"rendered":"

Question: <\/strong>It seems that nothing in my life has turned out the way I have prayed that it would. The sadness over my situation is overwhelming, even though I have tried my best to give all my failures over to God. Where do I go from here?<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>Can you think of any example from the past of where some great individual who became an instrument or vessel of the divine arrived at that relationship without suffering consciously for the sake of that communion? Even the few sages reputed to be born already illumined gave at great cost their lives\u2026 not to mention what they may have had to bear prior to that incarnation. At some point we must not only recognize that if we are to give our lives to God\/the divine, then this means that our lives must serve His purpose\u2026 and not the one that we imagine we ought to have as a result of our surrender. To give our lives to God means we give everything to Him –including our self-loathing, our sense of inadequacy, our hypocrisy, and our suffering over the same, whatever that condition may be. This may be the hardest of all things to do\u2026 but in the end is the true indicator of the depth of our intention to serve the greater life whose timeless love is our greatest wish. It may be wisely said that the last attachment a man has upon the path to his perfection is giving up the attachment he has to his suffering. Consider these words and start over.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: It seems that nothing in my life has turned out the way I have prayed that it would. The sadness over my situation is overwhelming, even though I have tried my best to give all my failures over to God. Where do I go from here? 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. 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