Panic Mode

Zephaniah 3:17
For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With His love, He will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

The car won’t start.  The kids are late for school.  Now you are going to be late for work and your boss is going to be there for your review.  The electric bill was due yesterday.  You might overdraft at the bank.  The dog might need to go to the vet.  Aunt Mary is having surgery.  You forgot someones birthday.  As panic begins to settle in you are about to go into self-destruct mode…..why didn’t I get the oil changed? Why did I hit snooze this morning?  I am going to be fired for sure.  Not going to have electricity come tomorrow.  The dog is going to die.  I can’t even remember what time Aunt Mary’s surgery is.  Susan is going to think I hate her. Why do we do this to ourselves everyday?  Where is our trust, in us or God?

As Christians we are not promised an easy life but I feel we make things so much more difficult on ourselves when we do not realize that God already has things planned out for us.  Our steps are ordered by the Lord and even though we have a free will, eventually we will end up at our destinies just like God said.  We get our own selves into such panic attacks over trivial things.  We give Satan the reins to our day and off he goes with our emotions, dragging us as far away from God as he can.  How can we stop this viscous cycle in our daily walks?  It really is as simple as surrender.

God will never give us more than we can handle and it is up to us to choose what we want to hold onto and what we want to let go of.  As we begin to learn how to surrender even the  tiniest of things to God, we will begin to see how much easier our days become.  As we ask God to show us how to react and to send help, He is faithful to provide.  An example that clearly sticks out in my mind was when my finance ran out of gas in his driveway and he was panicked about how to get to work.  As he surrendered it he heard to just start walking with the gas can, so he did.  God sent someone his way who took him to get gas and John was able to make it to work.  Had he not surrendered it and just stayed in panic mode he may have given up and perhaps lost his job.  But because he surrendered and trusted God, things worked out.

Everyday we have choices to surrender or to just do it ourselves. I have found on a personal level the more I give, the more God provides and in a greater way than I could ever expect.  Now, surrendering is not always an easy thing to do and sometimes we just want to hold onto it all until it becomes so difficult we have to let it go before it destroys us. Begin today to surrender something to God.  Start small if your are nervous, but begin to trust that He will provide for your entire day.  Surrender is the key to walking in peace.  It is the key which unlocks opportunities and keeps Satan at bay where he belongs.