A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about what happens When Surrender Becomes the Weapon.
I shared from my heart about a very recent season when fear had quietly convinced me that carrying more weight was the responsible thing to do. I had picked up work God never asked me to carry because the numbers were tight, the pressure was real, and surrender felt a whole lot scarier than having a backup plan.
But eventually, I laid it down.
I released my need to control how God would provide, when He would provide, and what that provision would look like.
That was surrender. Even if it felt scary or uncertain.
But this week, while listening to one of my favorite new podcasts with a Christian neurosurgeon Dr. Lee Warren, I heard something that took the revelation of surrender one step further and I had to share it here.
Because after we lay something down, there is always a question we eventually have to answer:
What happens next?
Do we simply sit still?
Do we wait for God to open every door, remove every obstacle, answer every question, and place the whole path directly in front of us before we move?
Sometimes God does ask us to be still. There are absolutely seasons when the most obedient thing we can do is stop, listen, heal, receive, and wait for His direction.
But the reality is also this: waiting on God does not actually mean doing nothing at all.
Dr. Warren said:
“The balance that we are intended to live is not choosing between surrender and action, but choosing to surrender the outcome to God while still taking the next obedient step He’s already placed in front of us.”
Phew.
Surrender the outcome while still taking the next obedient step.
He calls it surrendered action.
And I cannot think of a more powerful picture of surrendered action than what happened at the Jordan River in Joshua 3.
They Had Waited Long Enough
The quick backstory is the Israelites had spent MANY years waiting to enter the land God had promised them. And now, finally, the promise was directly in front of them.
There was just one problem.
The Jordan River stood between where they were and where God had told them to go—and to make matters even worse, the river was at flood stage.
This was not a little stream they could easily step across without getting the bottoms of their sandals wet. No, this was a raging river overflowing its banks. And the conditions certainly were not ideal or even safe for crossing.
Yet God instructed Joshua to have the priests carry the Ark of the Covenant toward the water. That is so how God works, right?
Now, I think we can sometimes picture this moment differently than it actually happened.
We imagine the priests standing safely on the riverbank while God stopped the water. Then, once the ground was dry and the way ahead was very obvious, they confidently began walking forward.
But that is not what happened.
The river did not stop first. Joshua 3 tells us that the water stopped flowing only after the priests’ feet touched it.
Picture this:
They had to walk toward a river that was still raging. They had to place their feet into water that had not yet moved.
And if you’re like me, you’re saying to yourself, “This doesn’t make any sense at all.” But this is how GOD does HIS greatest work!
The step came before the parting of the water.
And friend, that will preach all by itself all day long!
Before.
How many times are we waiting for God to part the water before we will take the next step?
We want the door to swing completely open before we walk toward it. We want the provision deposited in our bank account before we begin preparing. We want the whole plan explained before we give God our yes. We want to know that we cannot fail, fall, struggle, or get our feet wet before we move from the safety of the riverbank.
But what if the raging water right in front of you is waiting on your obedience before God moves?
Sometimes we are waiting for confirmation when God is waiting for our feet to touch the water and simply trust Him.
Faith Has Feet
James 2:17 tells us:
“Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”
Faith always moves. It has feet.
Again, our movement is not what makes God faithful because we do not earn His promises by working hard enough, taking big enough risks, or proving that we believe.
But when we truly trust God, that trust will eventually show up in the way we live.
Peter had to step out of the boat.
Nehemiah prayed—and then he rebuilt the wall.
The priests carried the Ark toward an overflowing river—and then placed their feet into it not knowing what the outcome would be.
The common denominator between these three examples is that not one of them controlled what happened next.
Peter could not hold himself above the waves. Nehemiah could not remove every threat or distraction surrounding the rebuilding, and the priests could not stop the Jordan from flowing.
But the key was this: they were responsible for obeying before they saw the results and God was responsible for the outcome.
That is what surrendered action looks like.
You release what only God can do while obeying what
He has placed in front of you. Before.
Rest Is Not the Absence of Movement
Dr. Warren also said something that challenged the way we can sometimes think about resting in the waiting seasons.
Rest does not mean lying on the couch and refusing to move until everything becomes clear. Yes, sometimes we absolutely need the couch. Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is take the nap, put down the phone, clear the calendar, and let our bodies recover.
But biblical rest is more than physical stillness. Rest means we stop relying on our own strength to control the outcome.
It means our soul is settled in God’s plan even while our feet are moving forward into unknown territory.
Here’s what I love:
You can write the email and still be at rest.
You can begin the work and still be at rest.
You can make the phone call and still be at rest.
You can enter unfamiliar territory and still be at rest.
You can step into the water and still be resting in God because you are no longer carrying the responsibility of making the river part.
Rest is not the absence of movement. It is the absence of striving.
Here’s what I love: strength flows from surrender and that strength is meant to be used. Mic drop!
Hope Does Something
Eugene Peterson said:
“Hope commits us to actions that connect us to God’s promises.”
Biblical hope is not passive. It’s not staring out the window and wishing something would change. And it is not continually talking about what God might do while refusing to take the scary step He has already placed in front of us.
Hope is what connects itself to God’s promises through faithful surrendered action.
It’s putting one foot in the water even when the river is raging because when we take the first step, God shows us the next one, and then the next one….
Surrender Calms the System
Dr. Warren explained why this rhythm of surrender and action matters to our minds.
You see, when we are constantly trying to control or predict the outcome like I did earlier this year trying to hold onto some clients work that I was never meant to do, our minds can remain locked in anxiety. And without fail, stress always makes its way to the scene.
We run every possible scenario over and over, anticipating every problem seen and unseen. And then we rehearse what might go wrong or could go wrong which leads us to create what we think is a perfect plan for circumstances we cannot possibly predict. What happens is our thoughts go in circles because we are trying to solve tomorrow using only the information we have today. But true surrender allows us to release our grip on everything we cannot know yet.
What I love about this reality is this type of surrender is what actually calms the internal alarm system going off in our mind and allows us to think more clearly about the step actually in front of us. When we’re in the middle of trying to predict the outcome, you’ll notice you can’t quite see what that step is until you let it go. But the beauty is when we take that step, we begin strengthening a new response. That’s a renewed mind way of living!
Instead of repeatedly telling ourselves, “I cannot move until I know how this ends,” we begin learning:
I can trust God without knowing the outcome.
I can obey without seeing the entire path.
I can move forward without carrying tomorrow.
Surrender calms the system. Action rewires the system.
Or perhaps we could say it this way:
Surrender loosens our grip. Obedience moves our feet. God handles the raging river.
The Surrendered Step
As I wrap this up, I want to give you the five-step practice that Dr. Warren shared for moving out of anxious waiting and into surrendered action. And I love how practical it is because this is not about solving your entire life today. It is about one surrendered step at a time.
1. Write down the specific place where you feel stuck.
Put it on paper.
Where are you waiting?
What outcome are you trying to predict?
Where have you become so afraid of making the wrong move that you have stopped moving altogether?
Name the specific situation. I have learned that more times than not, writing it down helps move it out of the constant spinning in our minds and places it somewhere we can look at the ‘whole picture’ with the Lord.
2. Surrender the outcome out loud.
There’s something so important about speaking these things out audibly. An example of what that looks like:
“God, I release my need to control or perfectly predict the outcome here. I surrender this to You. I cannot nor will I keep carrying this weight.”
Release the timing, the response, and the way you think it should happen. More importantly, release your demand to understand how every detail will work.
You are not surrendering because the outcome does not matter. You are surrendering because God can carry it better than you can. So good!
3. Discern the next right step.
Pray and ask the Lord:
“What is the next obedient step You have already placed in front of me that I cannot see?”
Do not ask for the entire road because that rarely ever happens. And don’t demand or except to receive a ten-step plan. Release the expectation to try and see the entire final destination from where you are standing. Just like the children of Israel, standing on the beginning of the raging Jordan River - they didn’t get to see the final outcome. It was taking the next step that was going to get them to that final destination.
More times than not, we actually already know what that next step is. We’re just afraid or uncertain to step into the unknown water.
So ask yourself:
What has God already been placing on your heart?
What conversation keeps returning to your mind?
What simple act of obedience have you delayed because you are waiting to feel completely certain?
4. Take the step this week.
Don’t leave the next step sitting in your journal for the next six months.
Go ahead and take it. However that looks:
Write the email. Make the call. Schedule the appointment. Have the conversation. Take the vacation. Begin the project. Put your feet in the water.
Then release what happens after your obedience and trust God to reveal what happens next.
5. Review and repeat.
Pay attention to what happens when you surrender the outcome and take the step.
What changed internally?
What did God show you?
Did the next step become clearer?
Did the river part differently than you expected?
Then repeat the process.
So it’ll look like this:
Surrender → Listen → Take the Next Step → Review → And Repeat.
With each step you take, it’s one step closer to what you’ve been believing and praying for!
Put Your Feet in the Water
God never asked Joshua to control the river, He just asked him to carry His presence and obey His instruction. And perhaps that is where you are today.
You don’t know how everything is going to turn out. You can’t predict the outcome as much as you want to. And if you’re like me, you can’t see a way out of this season. But I love the reminder that we weren’t asked to make the water stop, we’re just asked to take the next step - step into the water.
And friend, that is when God moves.
~ Tracee
I love love love this message!!!! It’s like you’re writing for me!!! God is speaking directly to me through your words- wow!!! Thank you!!!!