I was standing in church the other day, trying to intimately connect with Jesus through worship.  We usually sit in the back on a regular basis (with 3 kiddos that seems to be a necessity at this point).  I had Ephraim in the car seat beside me and Esther in my arms.  She is just precious during worship, she claps, she raises her hands, imitating what others do in the worship.  I love it!  This specific Sunday, as I was trying my best to focus, I was struck by a distinct picture.  I was worshiping, I was praising Jesus, doing my best to raise my hands in praise, all the while trying not to drop Esther and every minute or so glancing over at Ephraim to see if he needed anything.  I felt closer to God, although I was distracted, but God uses that time, no matter how short or how distracted, He uses it.  While in the midst of this, it hit me that this is often what we do with God.  We say we give Him everything, having our arms wide open to Him, but we still have…”stuff” in our arms.  Much like the picture of me holding Esther and lifting my one hand to heaven with an outstretched arm, I was still holding on.  My whole self couldn’t fully commit because I would have dropped Esther.  Now, I’m not saying it would have been good to drop Esther, you get the metaphor, right?  OK, moving on…here’s the point.  We can’t totally commit and surrender our lives when we are still holding on to things.  We say it, we even sing it (add in I Surrender All track), and we mean it, we really do, but if we are honest, we are still holding things, we are still holding our kids, our jobs, our ministry, our future yet still saying we surrender all.  We can’t!  Believe me, I have tried.  But the bottom line is there is no better place for all of that “stuff” to be that we try and carry but in the arms of Jesus!  (Can I PLEASE get an AMEN!)  He is the master of balancing it all and carrying it all and guarding it all.  Is it easy?  Of course not.  Are our lives going to be completely different when we can fully surrender in worship to Him?  YES!  When our focus is fully on Him instead of balancing all that is in our arms, WOW!  What freedom, what sweet surrender.  What are you holding on to?  Know that God can do better with it than you can today.  He is the author of whatever it is.  Surrender it and embrace all that He has for you!

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