FollowingJesusUS.com

Surrendering to Jesus can be difficult. We want to manage our lives the way we want to manage our lives. We carry our burdens, we give them to Jesus and we take them back. It’s hard not to worry about those we love…And, of course, we want to fix everything immediately.

But that is not what Jesus wants for us. We were never meant to carry those burdens. We were never meant to “fix” everything. Jesus loves us and wants to carry those burdens that are hurting us-for us. Because He loves us.

And when Jesus “fixes” something, He may not do it as we would, but He does it the right way. Because Jesus knows not just today, but tomorrow. And only God knows what is really in the heart of a human being. What their True Needs are. We don’t.

And because He loves us, He understands us. And He understands just how difficult it is for us to let go. Jesus understands that it is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight, but through practice we grow closer 🙂

We Surrender and give our burdens to Jesus, and then we take them back. I do it, most people do it. But the really great thing is that we can give our burdens back to Jesus!

We can Surrender again and again. Surrender takes Patience, Trust and Practice. But one day we will Surrender completely and forever. And when we finally do, we will not worry anymore 🙂

We Can Surrender 🙂

Sometimes I want so badly to give Jesus something in return. Something to say Thank You for all that He has done for me. For the way He loves me so completely.

What can I give Jesus? Myself.

There is a prayer that I love so much and pray every day.

“O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, please take care of everything”. Thank you.

More than anything else, Jesus wants us to Surrender to Him, completely. To give ourselves to Him.

And so we can do that 🙂

“I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”-Romans 8:38-39

Jesus loves us in a way that is hard for us to understand because Jesus loves us unconditionally. But what is “unconditionally”? Does anyone on this earth loves us like Jesus does?

Unconditionally means that Jesus loves us no matter what. Our sin, our shame, our failures do not stop Jesus from loving us! There is no such thing as “not good enough”. There is no amount of guilt, no matter how overwelming, that will stop Jesus from loving us completely.

And the truly amazing thing? Jesus knows us completely. Our every action, our every thought, our every feeling…And He loves us anyway!

Jesus loves us “fully and deeply”. We are truly chosen. And Jesus takes such Joy in us and can’t wait to have us Home.

And I am so grateful that this is True!

Thank You Jesus 🙂

Sometimes, our hearts are just too heavy to carry. It can be something we ourselves are suffering. Sometimes it is the burden that someone we love is carrying. Sometimes we don’t even know the person, but we truly feel for them.

Sometimes, heartbroken and exhausted, we just can’t keep walking. The only prayer we feel capable of is “Help”.

But Jesus does not want us to suffer in this way. He wants us to lay our burdens at His feet. To let them go, and give them to Him.

Easier said than done sometimes, but it’s okay if we have to “relay” our burdens down a few times. Jesus loves us and He understands.

Sometimes something really horrible happens and our heart aches so much that there almost feels like there is a huge lump in the pit of our stomachs. It’s then that we can ask ourselves some very difficult questions and doubts can raise their ugly heads. And we can question Jesus’s Great Love for us.

But it is at that exact moment that we need to keep praying. For it is then that we make our choice. To keep following Jesus despite the pain or to walk a different path.

But Jesus loves us and we need to keep Following Him. Prayer is the way we can do that 🙂

We all want the same thing, to love as Jesus does. But in order to do that we need to do a little housecleaning-in our own hearts.

We all have pet hurts and angers. Feelings that we dwell on, even though we know we shouldn’t. Pet sins we know we should give up, but we don’t.

But we can, with Jesus help 🙂

Just as we can ask Jesus to help us to make our hearts a Holy place. A place where He can dwell. A place that allows us to truly love the way Jesus does 🙂

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Lauren Daigle has a song that asks, “What have I done to deserve love like this. I can not earn what you so freely give”

Wow!

That Jesus loves us this much is so incredibly hard for us to comprehend! But Jesus does!

And so how can we not love Him enough to Finish the Race!

Our Lord has said that in order to be Forgiven, we must Forgive. It has also often been said that God can not work through anger. So let’s be clear, we can’t afford to let anger take root in any way.

But that can be difficult since anger often comes from hurt or fear. And that hurt or fear is sometimes justified.

Fortunately, Jesus is willing to help us!

Fear and hurt are quashed by a Complete Surrender to God. And when we truly and fully Surrender to God, all fear and hurt will leave us, as will the anger they caused.

Sometimes though, when we Surrender all to our Lord, we take it back. I know I do sometimes!

But thankfully, we can always turn back to Jesus and Completely Surrender to Him once again 🙂

The world, indeed our nation, can seem a scary place. The news headlines are enough to worry anyone. And as if that was not enough, we, each one of us, have our own share of family or health issues. Of job problems and economic ones…

But there is a way to stop these challenges from overwhelming and worrying us. If we truly Focus on Jesus, if we look at Jesus with an almost tunnel vision, we won’t see all the problems around us.

But sometimes, even as we fix our Focus on Jesus, we become distracted and loose our Focus. But Jesus understands 🙂

Remember the story of Peter and the boat. As long as he was focused on Jesus, he was able to walk on the water in the storm. But when he looked away, he began to fear and started to fall. But even so Jesus saved him. Just as Jesus will Saves us 🙂

We need to keep our Focus on Jesus and Pray 🙂

We hear this word, “transformed” so often. But like many things, this phrase has a simple meaning, but it is hard to do. It simply means: to live a life pleasing to God.

Simple, but hard.

So what kind of life is pleasing to God? It is one in which every single thought and action is governed by:

“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” – Matthew 22:47-40

Keep Praying, Prayer changes things 🙂