Submitting to God

I was encouraged through Nancy Guthrie as I read through her pain and loss (of 2 children) and yet see her desire to submit under God and grow in Him in strength. I want to share a few excerpts from her book, Holding Out Hope that have impacted me. Here's the first:


"God seemed to speak to me clearly — though not in an audible voice. I've never heard that. He spoke to me the way he always does: through Scripture. 
In my Bible study a couple of weeks after Hope was born, we looked at the story of Hagar who had run away from Abram and Sarah due to Sarah's harsh treatment. She wanted to escape her difficult situation, but God spoke to her in the desert, telling her to "return and submit." The lecturer asked, "What is God calling you to submit to?" And I knew God was calling me to submit to the journey we were facing with Hope, not to fight it or cry out to him to change it, but to submit to his plan and his purposes. 
At the same time, we were talking in Sunday school about the biblical account of the angel who came to Mary to tell her that she would give birth to a son. How did this "favored" one respond? "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." She submitted, even though what God had brought into her life, from her perspective as a 13-year-old Jewish maiden, must have looked like a disaster. Once again, I sensed a calling to submit to the plan he laid out before us, and to walk through it in a way that brought him glory, in a way that exemplified what it means to trust him in the midst of sorrow and difficulty and disappointment. -Nancy Guthrie
I'm praying through things God has laid in my life and learning to thank Him for His ways. i'm asking Him to give me the desire for only what He wants for me and those I love. I want to submit and seek Him alone. I'm so encouraged by how openly Nancy shared and by the reminder through His Word (especially through Mary) that His ways are best and it is a delight to rest in Him alone.

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