“And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.” Isaiah 64:8 (NLT)
On a long drive, we sometimes let our daughter watch a kids’ show on our phone. It helps keep her entertained and makes the drive easier when she starts to get restless. She’s in the backseat while my wife and I are up front, but once in a while, the video stops. It could be an incoming call, my daughter accidentally closing the app, or a notification that blocks the screen. When this happens, she lets out a little cry.
As a toddler, she doesn’t know how to bring the video back up. She only knows how to hold the phone and watch. So, when the video freezes, we have to reach back, take the phone, fix the issue, and hand it back to her. At first, she would cry even more because she thought we were taking it away for good. But over time, she learned that we weren’t taking it to keep it from her. We were just fixing it so she could enjoy it again. She had to learn to trust us and release it.
How much better off we would be if we could learn to trust our Heavenly Father the way she’s learning to trust us. He invites us to surrender our lives into His hands. And when we do, He takes what is broken, fixes it, and gives it back better.
I once believed that holding on tightly and controlling everything was the key to a good life. But I’ve learned that when I surrender relationships to God, they become stronger and more meaningful. When I trust Him with money, it loses its power over me and becomes an instrument for good. When I place my career in His hands, it transforms from a pursuit of success into a calling full of purpose.
Sometimes, we cry and fret when God reaches into our lives and asks us to give up what we’re holding on to so tightly. But if only we could understand that His taking always means He will return it better. If only we could learn to trust Him more.
So today, if you sense God gently reaching into your life, let go. Trust that His hand will guide you and return everything to you in a way that is better than you imagined.