“It wasn’t until I finally surrendered to God—my relationship, my fear, my life—that I finally saw everything move in a direction I never imagined. I watched love grow between my husband and I, stronger than before. I saw hope.”
My best friend says this to me, leaning across the table to grab my hand. There’s a softness to her eyes, a watery hint in corners as she looks up at the lights in this little coffee shop. I can tell the words that spill from her lips are genuine. She’s been struggling in her marriage, struggling in her faith, struggling with who she is, and what to do, and where to go from here.
But hearing her trust, with all of her mind and soul, in God—she has finally found peace.
I squeeze her hand. I know the beauty she’s experiencing, the wonder at finally, truly letting go and letting God handle the chaos of her life. I know what she means when she says she ‘surrenders.’ When she quits trying to be the ruler and allow God’s glory to move in and through her and everything she touches.
I know exactly what she means when she says she ‘trusted in God,’ because that exact moment has happened to me, so many times. Because it’s an experience I’ve had to relearn as I’ve struggled myself, with my own life and faith.
Every single time I gave my heart to my Father, I’ve watched His love surround and build and grow and change every single thing around me in powerful, indescribable ways.
“When we trust in God,” she says, “He moves.” And her words warm my heart with their truth.
In my life, when I finally stopped trying to be everything, stopped trying to fill my schedule, stopped trying to hold every responsibility and ache and pain on my own chest and let God take the reins, I found peace. I found rest. I found my own worth, and that I didn’t have anything to prove.
When I asked my Father to heal me from negative relationships, from my broken heart, from bitterness I had for people who had hurt me, I realized that I couldn’t handle the weight on my own.
It was only when I surrendered that I saw what He could do. When I gave Him my heart, I watched as He healed it, helped me forgive, helped me let go, and taught me how to love again. This time, without fear.
When we trust in God, we watch Him move—in us, through us. He gives us a calm that we’ve never experienced. He shows us hope we never had. When we surrender our fears and failures to Him, He reminds us that we are never alone and we don’t have to fear what’s ahead because He is by our side.
When we are vulnerable with Him, and allow Him to work within our soul, we see change, strengthened faith, miracles, and new beginnings. We see that things are not going to crash and burn. We see that we can and will be alright. We see that what is broken is not destroyed permanently. We see that light is all around us, and there is nothing to be afraid of.
My best friend is crying now, but tears of joy. For the first time in many months, she’s experienced a sense of wonderment, a hope for what’s to come. She knows, now, what she has forgotten—that God is always near. And she has renewed faith in both her Father and her husband, confident now, to move forward in love.
I hug her. We laugh and cry and hold each other under the twinkling lights of the coffee shop, and I am amazed, in that moment, how beautiful it is that God has brought her to me. She has become my strength, my light. She has reminded me of who I am and most importantly, who my Father is.
And now, I will step forward in my own life as I hope you will, too—trusting in our God and watching Him move. 
