Isn’t it interesting how during the most tumultuous moments we will stop to tell God something we are grateful about, or how much it means that he cares about our every need, and then we begin to settle down inside? It happens because we engage in the relationship God designed for us to have with him.
We are taking a moment, at those times of thanking and praising him, to surrender our need for control.
We are placing our focus and trust on him and off of our circumstances which have no power. Only God is sovereign, creator, in complete control of all things.
Inside of praising him, we are saying we recognize he is at work and we can rely on his love, goodness, ability and willingness to intervene in anything that troubles us.
We may begin to worry about something that seems to keep us down, kicking us to the ground in our hearts in a continual sense of ruin, of thinking everything about a certain situation is completely lost. We cannot seem to shake the belief nothing can be done, that perhaps it is simply God’s plan to do very little or nothing about it. In our limited view, we must resign to an irreparable situation that may be God’s call on our lives.
The difficulty could also be his will only for a season, even a long season to teach us something important for a particular calling. If so, God’s plan at times will involve a preparing that requires a greater depth than many of our other life endeavors. This is where we must especially hold onto the fact that he is the one, true, living God and no one and nothing else is.
What we can do while praying, and especially during those moments that come like an unavoidable flood of negative thoughts is to begin saying,
“Lord, I praise you for this situation and how you have a solution for it you are working on right now. Help me stop and praise you each time negative thoughts start to plow into my mind about a circumstance.”
It might be tough to do at first, but praying like that can cause us to ignore upsetting and debilitating thinking, and instead begin to sense a calm beyond our understanding yet, certainly is present because God is the author and provider of peace. It can lead us to praise and thank him, instead of worry, for the solution he is putting together as we confess his ability and willingness to intervene:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:15-20
Sending praise to God in the most difficult events takes the type control we think we have, plus control we know we do not have but wish we did, and places it all at the feet of Jesus. It lets us place problems into his charge to take from us and deal with in his own way and time. We are then enabled to look up at his face, into his eyes, and see his faithfulness and unfailing goodness moving to help us.
This surrender is how we are empowered, even in a sinful world, to walk calm and steady as we watch our loving, merciful God do what only he can. He will act on our behalf and no one can ruin it – not us, not anyone, not anything.
