Safe Haven and Surrender

Lately I feel a deeper level of surrender to God. I hear His voice guiding me. I know He is with me. I’m less scared. More confident. Ready for whatever He has in store for me next.

One of the reasons is because of a book I just read. It’s called Safe Haven, by Mandy Imlay. Mandy wrote it in six days and then took a Sabbath rest on the seventh day, because she felt compelled to do so by the Holy Spirit. It’s a beautiful, poetic, imperfect, spiritual story about a woman’s journey as she grows closer to Jesus. The imagery invokes the lovers’ book of the Bible – Song of Songs. It truly makes you feel what it would be like to be with Jesus – to have Him hold you, comfort you, cleanse you and call you His Beloved.

This book was given to me as a gift by none other than the author. We travelled to England on a church choir tour, and we went to the Imlay’s house for lunch. We gave our hostess a cookbook, and she in turn gave us copies of her book. Of course, being a writer, I felt an immediate bond with Mandy and knew this was no coincidence. Sure enough, we have kept in touch, and it is also because of her example and encouragement that I am feeling so close to God. I long to be as utterly surrendered to the Holy Spirit as Mandy Imlay.

Ironically, it’s only through true surrender to God that we can be set free. I might find fleeting moments of happiness while still holding on to my independence, but I don’t experience pure joy unless I let go and give it all to Him.

So, just how do I go about surrendering to God?

Well, first, I have to make time for Him, and not in the ways I used to think. I have to connect to Jesus on a personal level so that I can hear His voice guiding me. Going to church and praying occasionally just isn’t enough for me to make this level of connection. I went to church for years and still didn’t really get what it was all about. I have to spend time doing the specific things that bring me into that state of being where I can feel God’s presence and hear His voice.

How each of us gets in touch with the Holy Spirt is extremely personal. Some of the ways that work for me are journaling (with an actual pen and paper), reading books like Mandy’s, and picturing myself with Jesus. Some people connect with God through exercise. Others have to spend a certain amount of time every day meditating. God didn’t create a one-size-fits-all way for us to connect to Him, because He didn’t create us all the same. We are beautifully and breathtakingly different from each other, in an infinite number of ways, and there are an infinite number of ways to connect to Jesus.

The second step to surrender is actually acting on God’s voice once I start to hear it. This is almost always easier than I think it is going to be, because the steps I take to get to the point where I hear His voice are actually what prepare me to be able to follow it.

For example, tonight, before I started writing this blog post, I wasn’t hearing the Holy Spirit’s voice. I’d been asking God what I should write about, but I wasn’t getting any answers. So I wrote an entry in my personal journal. I thanked God for Mandy and her book and asked Him to show me what to do with this gift, which I know is really a gift from Him. Just physically writing that much was enough to hear His voice again. His voice said to just accept the gift.

That’s all. Just accept it.

Well, that unleashed a wave of tears over the realization that I had been asking God what to do with His gift from a place of feeling like I needed to do something to earn it, something to make it all make sense that He would give me a gift in the first place.

I hadn’t realized it before, but I was full of guilt and shame. Of course, none of what I was beating myself up over was earth-shattering – I had spent a little too long playing a game on my phone and felt that  perhaps I could have been more present. I forgot that I don’t have to be perfect.

After writing in my journal and really feeling the icky feelings I’d been trying to escape from, I was able to let them go, and ask for and feel God’s forgiveness and healing. Only then could I accept His gift, because only then was I able to accept that I am so, so loved. That of course, God would give me a gift like Mandy Imlay and her book. I am His precious child, His beloved, His most special one.

By the time I heard the voice of the Holy Spirt calling me to write this blog, there was no difficulty in following through with it. I was no longer worried about having to be perfect or pleasing anyone.  All of my energy came from a place of love and overflowing fullness. In Mandy’s words, it was anointed.

3 Lessons I’ve Learned from My Dog

Sometimes I think I learn more about God through my dog Milo than anywhere else. It might sound crazy, but think about it. The Bible tells me God’s love for me is unconditional. Is there any better example of UNCONDITIONAL love than what you get from a dog? God must have created dogs, at least in part, to show us a physical manifestation of the kind of love He feels for us! Here are 3 of the ways…

God’s love is fierce.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believe in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
John 3:16

Sometimes when I spend time with God, I get a glimpse of the depth and weight of His love for me. Most of the time though, I just can’t grasp it. It’s just so… huge.

When I see how my dog greets me when I get home from work though, I sort of get it. Milo goes CRAZY when he sees me. It’s as if my walking in the door is the most amazing thing that has EVER happened. He jumps on me. He licks my face. He jumps more. He licks more. Sometimes, he gets SO excited he jumps too high and ends up flipping himself, landing awkwardly on his back. He’s so happy though, he doesn’t even care. He just whimpers a little and goes back to the jumping and the licking. It’s a fierce love if I’ve ever seen one.

God gets THAT excited over me too! He gets that excited over you too.

What if every time we go to God in prayer, every time we turn to Him for help, every time we praise Him, every time we give Him thanks, we imagine that it’s the singular greatest thing that’s ever happened in His eyes? What if we change our perspective to recognize the pure joy that God feels for, in and through us? How might our lives change if we lived from the place of total confidence that comes from knowing just how deeply we are loved?

God’s love is unconditional.

“Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.”
Psalm 27:10

There is NOTHING I could do – EVER – that would change how God feels about me. He adores me. Even if everyone else in this world abandons me, He will be there for me.

I know this intellectually, but it can be hard to find an example of this kind of love on this earth. People talk about loving each other unconditionally, but we don’t come anywhere as close as our furry friends. Milo is ALWAYS ridiculously excited to see me. No matter what. Even if I’ve left him for hours at a time. Even though half the time after a long day, I just give him a quick pet and do everything I can to try to stop the jumping and the licking. It doesn’t matter. My dog will never stop loving me. There is nothing I could ever do that would stop him from pursuing me.

This is exactly how God feels about me. And about you. It’s how He feels about ALL of us. Just like the father in the story of the prodigal son, God will ALWAYS receive us back with open arms when we wander astray. No matter what. Just like our dogs, He loves us in ways we didn’t earn and that we can never quite fully comprehend. He will never stop loving us, and there is nothing we could ever do that would stop Him from pursuing us!

God’s love is personal.

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”
Isaiah 43:1

The most powerful aspect of God’s love for me is how personal it is. He doesn’t love me because I am smart, or pretty, or funny, or anything else the world so often judges on. He just loves me for me.

This is an especially hard concept for me to explain, but once again, my dog helps me understand. Milo doesn’t just get excited to see SOMEONE after a long day, he gets excited to see ME. He is attached specifically to ME. I’ve seen stories about army dogs who haven’t seen their owners for years and somehow still recognize them. I don’t know if there’s a specific scent or if it’s some other animal instinct, but there is something very personal about a dog’s love.

God loves me purely and solely because He made me. Because I am HIS. The Bible says God calls me personally by name. He knows me intimately. And He loves me just because I am who I am. I don’t have to be anything else. What freedom there is in knowing this!

When I see my dog, there’s no way to deny I am experiencing a fierce and loyal love. A love that’s for me and me alone. A love that’s unconditional. I’m so grateful I get to see this kind of love in such a real and tangible way so that I can better understand God’s love for me. Because the truth is, God loves me EVEN MORE than my dog does.