INESSA'S JOURNAL

Today I came across a simple quote: “The difference between Jesus and religion: Religion shames people for having dirty feet. Jesus kneels down to wash them.” What a powerful picture. When Jesus walked this earth, He was constantly surrounded by people who were broken, hurting, struggling, and carrying burdens. Yet He never turned people away because of their mess. Instead, He stepped into their mess. Religion often says, clean yourself up first, then come. Jesus says, Come to Me, and I will help you become whole. One of the most beautiful moments in Scripture is when Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, the King of kings, knelt down and washed dirty feet, no, not because the disciples deserved it, but because He loved them. Jesus knew Peter would deny Him, Jesus knew Judas would betray Him, Jesus knew the weaknesses, failures, and struggles of every person sitting at that table. Yet He still washed their feet. That is the heart of Jesus. Sometimes we think we need to fix everything before coming to God. We think we need to overcome the addiction first, stop the bad habit first, get our life together first, become “good enough” first. But the Gospel is the opposite. Jesus meets us where we are, He meets us in the middle of our confusion, our pain, our questions, and our battles. And that brings me to something God has been teaching me recently.

For many years, I honestly don’t think I understood what true surrender looked like. Like many people, I would pray. I would bring my requests before God. I would ask Him to help me. But looking back now, I realize I was often praying from my own understanding. I would come into prayer and tell God exactly what I thought needed to happen. “Lord, do this, Lord, fix this, Lord, change that person, Lord, make this situation work out this way.” I was bringing God my solutions instead of surrendering the problem itself, the Bible tells us that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We live in a spiritual world, yet so often we only focus on what we can see with our natural eyes. Recently, I found myself facing a situation where nothing seemed to be changing. I was praying, I was believing, I was doing all the things I knew to do, yet I had no peace and no breakthrough. Then one day I fell on my knees and prayed differently. I said, “Lord, I surrender this situation to You, I don’t know what to do anymore, I cannot fix this on my own, I give this entire problem to You. please HELP!” For the first time, I stopped trying to carry it this situation, I stopped trying to control, I stopped trying to tell God how He should solve it, I simply surrendered it, then I took a day to fast and continued praying. A few days later, everything changed. The situation was resolved, peace returned, and I saw God’s hand move in a way I never could have accomplished on my own.

As I write this, I remember a dream I had about a week earlier. In the dream, I was driving on a very rough road, the road was bumpy, then I got into an accident, after that, I tried driving on a slippery road, but nothing seemed to work, everything felt difficult, unstable. But at the end of the dream, I received a happy baby, and that baby brought me incredible joy. Looking back now, I see the picture God was showing me, the rough roads represented the struggle, the accident represented the obstacles, the slippery road represented my inability to control the outcome, but the baby represented the promise, the breakthrough, and the new thing God was bringing after surrender.

Sometimes God allows us to reach the end of ourselves so we finally place the situation into His hands. Not because He wants us to suffer, but because He wants us to trust Him. Sometimes the breakthrough is waiting on the other side of surrender. Maybe that’s where some of you are today, you’ve prayed, you’ve worried, you’ve analyzed, you’ve tried to fix it, you’ve tried to control every outcome, and you’re exhausted. What if today you simply brought it to the feet of Jesus? What if instead of giving Him your plan, you gave Him your burden? What if instead of telling Him how to solve it, you trusted Him to handle it? The scripture says, “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7) did you notice it, it didn’t say carry it while praying, It says cast it, release it, give it away, leave it in His hands. Jesus is not asking you to carry what only He can carry, He is asking you to trust Him with it and sometimes trust looks like surrender.

Today my encouragement for you is simple. Bring the situation to Jesus, lay it at His feet, tell Him you don’t have all the answers, tell Him you need His help, fast if He leads you to fast, pray if He leads you to pray. But most importantly, surrender because there is a difference between praying about a problem and surrendering a problem and sometimes the miracle begins the moment we finally let go.