You can only let in God when you let go of everything else

‘Because your men explored the land for forty days, you must wander in the wilderness for forty years - a year for each day, suffering the consequences of your sins..’ Numbers 14:34

God needed the Israelites to stop being slaves to their own fears and desires and to focus first and trust in God. To totally surrender their lives and who they were to God.

Where are you in the wilderness in your life? What areas do you need to surrender now to God? What would it look like to refocus your life on God’s love for you?

In the person of Jesus, God showed himself to be a servant of the world. He held up love as agape- self sacrifice- for us all. It is through refocusing on this type of love we begin to find true, lasting fulfilment and happiness. Happiness, which is a by product of living and loving those around us well, becomes ours as we let go and surrender our lives to God- fully - all parts.

If we get lost or caught up in ‘our rights’ and ‘our needs’, we end up looking inwards rather than outwards at others and the world becomes so much smaller when we do this. There is a huge world out there that we can focus on being a blessing to, rather simply looking at what we can get out of it ourselves. The world is so much larger when we do this. So much richer.

Passing on the knowledge of our years, for example, I was reliably informed this week by a ‘happiness expert’ who is a Harvard University professor and has spent a large proportion of his life looking at the data on happiness, is one of the key ways to develop deep and lasting happiness in our own lives right to the very end.

If you need examples of this your world- then I think the ultimate example of how to live and love well is found in the person of Jesus Christ, as revealed in the gospels. He teaches us that focusing on the deep and real love God has for us, casts out fear. The fear we aren’t good enough, or will be left, or let down. He says, ‘Perfect love casts out fear’. The love our father in heaven has for each one of us.

So would you like to live a life free of the fear of what others think about you? Free of the fear of being left? Or unloved? Or lost? Then the answer is already there in front of you, pursue the love of Jesus and getting to know him better by reading any of the gospels, or all four of them; Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; and see what happens.

Get connected to the deep, lasting, eternal love that is waiting for you, your free gift of happiness, as you surrender your life to the one who loves you more than anyone else has, or ever can. Go to the source of all love as you surrender control.

Perhaps ask Jesus today, to show you how to love well and live a life free from the slavery of fear and control, as you handover the fear and control in your own life into his loving hands.

And as you begin refocusing on God’s love for you, through Jesus, rather than what the world thinks of you, through your smart phone, or devices, you can watch Jesus bless what you do next…

…and so be blessed!