It is your decision.
I found this written on an index card recently. I don’t recall where I initially found it or if I wrote it.
Lord, I give you my desire, need, and right to judge others and take their inventory.
I release my fear of…
I surrender my anxiety of…
I let go of my frustration…
Lord, I would like to receive your…
… peace
… patience
… kindness
… love
… joy
I need to spend a few minutes with this each morning and/or evening.
--Where do I need to give God my desire or right to judge?
--What fear do I need to release?
--What anxiety must I surrender?
--Am I yearning for God’s peace? Patience?
I heard a taped interview with Robert Downey Jr. today. He said giving up drugs was easy. It was making the decision to give up drugs that was hard. Once we make the decision to give God our desire to judge, be right, or whatever then we can decide to release, surrender and let go.
Do you need to make a decison about something that is holding onto to you? Do you need to decide about something you are holding onto? Where do you need to decide to give to God.. to release... let go... surrender? It is your decison.
5 Comments:
Surrendering desire...obsession...*need*...to God is one of the most difficult things in the world. The 3rd step prayer that says "I offer myself to Thee to build with me and do with me as Thou wilt" is a practical impossibility, because my secret voice says, "Yeah, do with me what you will...but here's 3 or 4 options I'd like you to consider..." I can't say I've *ever* done that completely, sad to say.
And Robert Downey Jr. - well, let's just say that when *I* gave up my addiction, there wasn't anything easy about it - neither action nor follow-through. In the end, I didn't "let it go" so much as it was ripped from my fingers, leaving claw-marks galore, and hands that still twitched to take it back again. In fact,one of the reasons I work so hard to *stay* clean and sober is that I never want to *get* clean and sober again.
I need to make myself an index card like that...thank you for sharing, brother. On my Turkey Day gratitude list, you will have a prominent place - I'm glad we get to "trudge the road of happy destiny" together.
good thoughts . . . and sometimes we KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt what the desire or "sin" is that we need to get rid of . . .
what becomes more difficult are issues and lifestyles that aren't outwardly wrong, yet something is nagging on our insides and we can't put our finger on it . . . or as in our case, the quiet life we lead because of my husband's chronic pain - should it be lived more out there? but pain robs a person of strength and patience . . . so the issues get blurred in just dealing with lifes cruelties . . . then that still small voice whispers in my ear "I know the desire of your heart" . . . which is to let Christ live through me . . . whether it is only the dust bunnies that can say "amen, sister", well so be it . . .
well you just lead me down a good path, rick . . . i got an answer . . . God can speak through the tapping of typewriter keys too!
Thanks for your comments.
I may have "over-simplified" Downey's statement. I think his point was, that DECIDING... making up our minds is key. We often have good intentions etc., but there comes a time when "we make the DECISION to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God." There are times when we decide to get in shape... read a novel etc.
I think one of our greatest powers is the power of CHOICE. We CHOOSE... we DECIDE.
Thanks again for your comments! Love to my blog-friends.
Rick
Thank you Rick,
I have had the most horrible day today and I log onto BE and immediately click on your blog. My son is 10 years old and autistic and today was "doctor day". He was so unruly that I ended up having to trap him in the bathroom, which means he ends up hitting me and throwing a fit. Needless to say it was one of those days where I drive home crying.
Your blog gave me hope.
telycook@swbell.net
Yes decisions - deciding is the hardest part. Surrendering my will to Him and my desires to Him and rejecting sin - deciding to do all of that is near impossible.
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