Devotionals for the Heart: When God challenges you to change you

Learning to Surrender to God’s Process
A devotional by Lynette Allcock Yoon

“Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.”—1 Peter 5:6 (NIV)

I squirmed on the massage table as my massage therapist’s nimble hands stretched and kneaded each sore spot in my shoulders and neck. “Relax, relax,” she instructed me with a chuckle.

“I’ll do my best,” I laughed, trying to focus on deep, calming breathes even as my hands gripped the side of the bed. I knew that the therapist was working to help me. She had to get out my knots and stiffness. I knew that tightening my body against her pressure was only hurting me more. But it wasn’t easy to surrender to the process.

The next morning, as I stretched out my sore neck, a thought suddenly sprang into my mind: “How often do I struggle against God’s hand, just as I did during the massage?”

God’s hand in Scripture symbolizes His power, discipline, protection, blessing, and direction. However, the process of His leading and teaching can sometimes be uncomfortable—even painful—for us.

There are moments when God needs to get the “knots” out of my character. He wants to tackle my pride, my self-sufficiency, and my fear. I’m sure you can think of some traits of your own that God is challenging and changing. It would be nice to wake up one morning, feeling magically more patient, gracious, or courageous. But this change doesn’t usually happen overnight. Instead, God allows us to go through circumstances that require us to make choices, experience repentance and grace, and grow our character little by little.

Besides moments of God’s training and discipline, there are times when I sense God leading me somewhere I’m reluctant to go. Obeying God might put me into some difficult situations, that bring me to the end of myself and stretch my faith. Following God might challenge me to love and minister in ways that are outside my natural comfort zone. When God works in our lives in this way, the process isn’t always easy. But it is always for our good.

Isaiah describes God as a potter. If you’ve ever seen a potter at work, you know how literally hands-on they are as they craft their wares. Isaiah 64:8 (NLT) says, “O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand.”

But Isaiah also describes how God’s creations sometimes try to fight back against their Maker. He says in Isaiah 45:9 (NLT), “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’”

God’s hand wants to stretch me, shape me, and ultimately make me into something beautiful. If I resist Him, I’m only making things harder for myself! Isaiah makes it clear that resistance ends in sorrow.

Hebrews 12:6, 11 (NLT) says, “For the Lord disciplines those He loves…No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.”

The promise of a peaceful harvest of goodness and righteousness to come can help us learn to surrender to God’s hand in our lives. God loves us. He is working all things together for good.

Where might you be resisting God today? Where are you struggling under His hand? I encourage you to surrender. Don’t make the process of spiritual growth harder for yourself by fighting against it! There is a beautiful harvest of peace and righteousness, and a closer relationship with God, awaiting you.

Let’s Pray:

Dear God,

Thank You for being our Maker. Thank You for guiding us through this life on Earth, blessing us abundantly, and disciplining us with your Hand. Help us not to resist You, but rather to submit to You. Help us to feel peace and joy in surrender, knowing that You are working for our good. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen.

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Song of Reflection #1: “I Surrender All” by Carrie Underwood. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #2: “Lead Me On” by Chandler Moore. Listen to it here.

Song of Reflection #3: “Have Thine Own Way, Lord” by Lynda Randle. Listen to it here.

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Author Bio:

Lynette Allcock Yoon is a writer, teacher, and former radio host. 

She grew up in three countries and now lives in South Korea with her husband.

Lynette writes about life abroad, faith, and relationships from an expat, Third Culture Kid (TCK) perspective.

Outside of work, Lynette enjoys musical theatre and long walks with good friends.

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Connect with Lynette:
Website: https://www.lynetteallcock.com/

Words of Faith: A story that will touch your heart and inspire faith in God

Trusting with Faith
A Words of Faith story by Sandy Nadeau

We’ve all heard the saying, “Let go and let God”. But how does that look in practice?

As with most things in life, you don’t learn it without experiencing the needed action. We had a hard lesson, and it certainly has shown us how to let go. When there is nothing you can control, nothing that can be relied on except God, you learn.

Our little granddaughter was born with a heart defect. It wasn’t found until about five months of age. She was diagnosed as “failure to thrive” and was falling backward in growth. It was a scary time. She was our second grandchild. Both adopted, which is an additional story of letting go, but that for another time. She lost so much weight and was looking very gaunt. We prayed and prayed for answers. Soon she had to be hospitalized. Feeding tubes, tests, worry, heartache, more tests, more hospitals. We could only trust.

To see a small baby girl, so helpless, so reliant on those around her to fix what was wrong, not understanding why she was sleeping in so many strange places and not her own home for so long, needles, poking, prodding, it reminded us how helpless WE were in this. There was nowhere else to turn, but to the Lord to give us the strength we needed to see her through this trial.

At six months of age, after she’d gained a little weight, she was scheduled for open heart surgery. We lived nine hundred miles away, but I spent the majority of those two months living with them to care for our grandson while his sister was going through so much with her mommy and daddy. We waited hours as surgery was performed. Finally we learned that her heart was kind of twisted, with three holes in it and arteries in the wrong place with one pressing on her esophagus preventing food from going down. No wonder she wasn’t thriving. It was a remarkable surgery. A God-given ability to repair some serious defects. We were thankful.

Our faith was certainly tested. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that. It’s difficult to understand why an innocent child would have to go through all that. A fallen world causes defects. Faith in God and His Son is what gets you through it. That isn’t saying it’ll be easy, because it’s not. It wasn’t. A lot of tears were shed and paths worn into floors from pacing. But I knew that whatever would happen, Jesus was right there with us in those hospital rooms and the waiting rooms. He was with her in surgery, and He is with us all now as we rejoice in having a very healthy rambunctious girl running around as any normal two year old. He held us up, helped us keep putting one foot in front of the other, and guided us in our faith and prayers.

After such a scary thing, our desire to live closer became so strong. We made the decision, through a lot of prayer, to pack up and move our lives. Leaving our comfort zone, our perceived security, the life we’d know for thirty years, and head into the unknown. A huge leap of faith. No home, no job, no income, move into one room at our daughter’s, store forty years of belongings, and go. We felt such peace about it even though we had no idea what would come. We needed to be with our family. We came so close to losing our grandgirl, and we were missing out on them both growing up.

It still took a lot of faith and trust, and continues to need that daily since we made the move. We found a wonderful home, which we are settling into. The income part of things is not panning out well, but again, we’ve seen time and time again that the Lord will provide. If we are faithful and can trust Him, we know we’ll be okay. To be with our family has been the blessing coming out of faithfulness to God’s leading.

We just need to trust! God’s got this. He watches over the sparrows, He’s not letting go of us.

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Author bio: Sandy Nadeau loves to go on adventures, photograph them and equally loves to write about them. She and her husband did a lot of four-wheeling in the backcountry of Colorado and shared those experiences with others by taking them up in the mountains. Her writing experience includes a community news column in a small newspaper for twelve years, magazine articles and two novels with adventure, mystery, romance, but most importantly sharing God’s love. She is currently a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers. 

Married for 39 years, she and her husband are loving life as grandparents to their two grandchildren after the big move to Texas. Travel is their favorite thing to do and they don’t get to do it as often as they’d like. Adventure awaits around every corner, over every hill and mountain.

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