Open Hands

“Trusting God does not mean believing He will do what you want, but rather believing He will do everything He knows is good.”

- Ken Sande

Pastor Jared said this past weekend that Christianity can be summed up in five words: “Trust God, surrender the outcome.” Sounds easy, but when put to the test, it can be very difficult.

The word “surrender” almost immediately creates a response of wanting to take control (right, moms?) and orchestrate the end result. It reminds me of when I took our son, Steve, to his first swimming lesson. He wasn’t even a year old, so I anticipated that the class would consist of holding our children splashing in the water while talking with the other moms. I checked him in and anxiously walked to the side of the pool. That is when the instructor jumped in and told me to toss Steve into the pool. My immediate reaction was to let her know that she was crazy!  She just stood there smiling, reassuring me that everything would be fine. What? Fine? This woman I had just met was asking me to trust her with my son's life! How could someone who knew nothing about me or my son, nor love him like I do, expect me to take that kind of a risk?

Eventually, I surrendered and opened my arms, releasing my precious son into the pool. And just as she assured me, he rose to the surface smiling. When she pulled him out of the water, he was happy and splashing as if to say, “do it again!”

I wonder, how often do we tell God that He doesn’t know what He’s doing?

We’re afraid to surrender the results to Him. We tell Him we have everything under control. We’re afraid to trust him. We can’t see that we’ll come up from the water smiling and splashing!

As we saw this past weekend, Abraham trusted God, surrendered his plans and as a result, God blessed him to bless others. Throughout Scripture, we see other examples of open-handed trust. Moses trusted God as he led the children of Israel. That is, until the incident in the Desert of Zin near the end of their forty years of wandering in the desert. The Israelites were angry because there was no water. God told Moses to speak to a rock and water would flow. But what did he do?

And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock.

- Numbers 20:11

Because Moses lashed out in anger rather than trusting that God would provide through his words, he wasn’t allowed to enter the Promised Land. Not such a great outcome! But like you and me, even though he made mistakes, Moses was still blessed by God. In Exodus 33, Moses was given the opportunity to see the glory of the Lord. He was used by God to bless the children of Israel and lead them right up to the Promised Land.

Peter was blessed by God and was given the assignment to build the church:  ​​

“Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

- Matthew 16:18 (NLT)

After Jesus was arrested, Peter denied knowing Him and yet, in John 21:15-17, Jesus reinstated him to “feed My sheep.” Peter was blessed to be a blessing, and as a result, the church began.

Five years ago, Ken was diagnosed with metastatic kidney cancer. Doctors call him an anomaly because of all of the side effects and challenges he has experienced. We continue to say, “God’s got this!” Not “God’s got this, but let me hold on tight with fists clenched.” Just like I had to throw my hands wide open to drop Steve into that swimming pool years ago, we continue to trust God and surrender the outcome. We never know how God is using our experience to bless the life of someone else!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

- 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Where in your life do you need to open your arms, stretch out your hands and tell Jesus, “I surrender all?”

Where can God use you to be a blessing to others?

Pastor Pam

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