How Do You Give It to God?!

How in the world do you “give it to God”?!

Have you heard that before?!

You’re having a terribly stressful situation. It’s one of those times where you feel like you’re drowning, and there’s no buoy in sight. You know that God is in control. You know because that’s what everyone says! In fact, if you do reach out for guidance or share your plight with your Facebook friends, at least one person will say it.

“We’re praying for you, honey! Just give it to God!”

Ok. Great. Now, how do I do that again?

I think this was always one of those things in my Christian walk that kind of bothered me. Early on I asked more mature Christians the same question. Like, how? And most of the time I was told to just surrender.

“Brie, literally throw your hands up in the air and say, I can’t do it alone, God!” A friend suggested.

And yeah, that’s true. I mean, God certainly hears you, and He even answers. Things improve, it seems, after that outward expression of your innermost heart desire, but inevitably it creeps back. What I mean is, you can surrender your anxiety to Jesus on Tuesday, but by Saturday something else may rear its ugly head and the next thing you know, you’re anxious again.

Ugh, I thought I gave this to God! What gives?!

So, I sought that answer too, and I was told more good advice.

“Brie, surrender is something you have to do more than once,” my mentor said. “Sometimes, it’s a daily practice.”

And you know what? She was right about that too.

Okay, so you’re saying I need to just go on and tell God I’m giving it to Him. Check.

Then, I’ll need to do that many times over throughout my life. Gotcha.

But, do you know what else I’ve discovered? It’s taken me some time, but I have realized that to give it to God takes a lot more.

For one, it’s easy to say you surrender a situation with your words, but actually carrying that through in your head is a horse of a different color. You know what I mean. You’re sitting there minding your own business, certain that God’s got this, when suddenly you hear a little whisper of a thought. It’s a soft whisper at first.

It says something like, “but what if it doesn’t work out?”

And then the whisper gets a little louder. So you think about it some more. And it gets louder and louder. Before you know it the drumming of your heart in your ears competes with the urgent cry in your head.

“You’re going to fail,” it exclaims!