Walking Into the New Year Waving A White Flag.

The rain is pouring down on the metal roof of my sunroom right above my head. The staccato rhythm of the rain is beating in my chest and it feels like the new year has swept in with gail force winds.

I feel the tension in my body and I’m tired. I’m so tired of all the heartache that has swirled around those I love and those I have no knowledge of.

I’m still here and all I want to do is raise a white flag of surrender,

Not to some invisible hand called ” fate” or to the unknown year to come.

NO, I’m surrendering to my God.

You see He alone holds all the pieces, the broken pieces of our circumstances and the pieces not yet created but alive in Him.

As I prayed and wrestled through some heartbreaking circumstances this last year, I kept on hearing this verse over and over.

Submit, (surrender) to God, resist the devil and he will flee.

You see, beloved our battle is not against. (  flesh and blood. I feel like I need that verse on repeat.

OUR BATTLE IS NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD,

“But against  the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ” (Eph. 6:12)

It’s not enough that we resist the devil. It’s not even enough that we renew our minds, although they both are important.

First we must submit, surrender to our God.

We must surrender to his perfect will and ways.

We must place our trust in him instead of man.

We must release the things that we carry, the things that weigh down our hearts with fear and anxiety, into his loving hands.

Then our hands are empty of all the things that weigh us down and we are able to resist the enemy of our souls. so that he flees.

You see beloved there is nothing new under the sun.(Ecc.1:9)

The enemy will come at us because that it what he does. The winds of life will blow this way and may seem like they’ll surely take us down.

But God loved us SO well he allowed His Son to experience His own set of trials and temptations.

So, I’m reminding my own heart as I’ve reminded my third graders this year when we studied the temptation of Christ…

“What did Jesus do? How did he resist the enemy of His soul?

And their tender voices reply… “With scripture, Mrs. Dickson, with the Word.”

Yes, dear ones, “It is written.”

The winds may blow, the lion may prowl but we know the way to Victory.

Submit to God.

Resist the Devil… Speak the truth of God’s Word to him, to your own soul.

And let him flee.

Raising our white flag can be a good thing.

Because I’m only trusting this year to one, the Savior of the World.