Session 23

I surrender (almost) all

From 2 Chronicles: A 28-Day Devotional

Actions speak louder than words and Asa, Judah’s king, put action to his faith. 2 Chronicles 14:2-4 says, “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He commanded Judah to seek the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his laws and commands.”

Asa chose not to live his life according to his own standards or those of society. A few verses later, we see the result of Asa surrendering his life to God — he and his people were given rest, they built, and they prospered.

While Asa trusted God in many areas of his life — his battles with other countries, his leadership of the people, his relationships with family  — there was one area he held back. Later in life, Asa was struck with a foot disease, and “though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the Lord, but only from the physicians” (2 Chronicles 16:12).  

Despite a lifetime of trusting God with so much, Asa still struggled with surrendering his physical health. We all have areas of our lives that are harder to surrender than others. We’ll trust God with our career decisions, but not when it comes to who to date. We’ll surrender our time, but not our money. We’ll trust that God has a plan for our lives but refuse to give up control over our kids’ lives.  

God’s desire for our lives is that we rely on Him completely — with our marriages, our children, our health, our careers, our finances, our past, and our futures. When we resist the temptation to rely on our own strength and surrender everything to God, we allow Him to build us, prosper us, and give us rest.

Reflect:

• What are the areas in your life that you have turned over to God?
• Are there areas of your life that you still need to fully surrender to God?
• What’s one action you can take this week to surrender all?