God is sovereign over all His creation and there is no higher good or passion than to surrender to God’s desire and plan. Difficulty comes when life hurts. When pain inevitably happens, then questions flourish and trust is shaken.
Trust is shaken because I now face front on results that do not bring immediate happiness or seemingly make sense. In this moment, my faith in God’s plan is jeopardized because it does not line up with my current projection. This reveals that I am not trusting in God, but rather putting God on trial and judging Him lacking. In the heart of man is the desire for fulfillment and happiness that draws on present time rather than eternity as the measuring stick. God looks not at one moment in time independent of all history, for He is the author working and producing each instance for eternal purposes.
"For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." - 2 Corinthians 4:17-18
The tighter I hold to my destiny and desires, the less I enjoy the freedom of God’s redemptive inclusive story. The paradox I discover is that nothing withheld, leaves me everything. When I lay down my established self-satisfying prerogative, I am left with the God of the universe seeking my best interest, which is His eternal glory. Glory that will not belong to another. When I release my grasp on temporal things and even intangible abilities, I gain deep abiding relationship with the Creator of my soul. When Abraham stood on the mountain purposing to put to death His promised child as a sacrifice demanded by the Lord, he was holding on to nothing but faith in his God’s plan and purpose. Here, Abraham found the beauty of surrender as his faith was found firm and His God true. Abraham received the gift of experiencing the sincerity of previously expressed but untested devotion. The Lord knew Abraham’s faith would hold, but now Abraham knew. Eternity will reveal the authorship of God but for now I trust my Creator, often without immediate explanation.
