You Can't Do Anything

Surrender Days 15-17

Ray Hennessy on Unsplash

You can’t do anything. Does that sound harsh? It’s actually a very freeing truth about human beings. We can’t do anything. We need God.

Let’s talk about that.

Thank you for being here! If you are just joining the challenge, you can jump right in or use these links to access the previous content:

Days 1-4, Days 5-7, Days 8-10, and Days 11-14

This week, we’re focused on the theme of surrender, which is the act of turning your entire life over to God. Everything. That’s all he wants! There’s a reason this is called a “challenge.” It’s simple, but not easy.

The surrender novena is a beautiful prayer I’ve shared about many times on Girlfriends, but I want us to focus on it this week with a fresh perspective. Today, let’s focus on the words Jesus teaches us to pray, over and over again, in the novena:

Oh Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything!

He takes care of everything.

Is that hard for you to pray? When I first started praying this novena regularly, those words struck me as strange, and I had a hard time understanding them. I mean, Jesus takes care of everything? Isn’t that a cop-out? Don’t we need to do something?

Especially for busy, accomplished women, it can be hard to embrace the idea that God does everything. We can do nothing on our own. That’s the truth this prayer invites us to see. We don’t do anything. God does everything.

In the words of the novena, Jesus tells us:

Surrender means to placidly close the eyes of the soul, to turn away from thoughts of tribulation and to put yourself in my care, so that only I act, saying “You take care of it.”

So, here’s your simple assignment.

Think of something you’re tempted to worry about. It might be your marriage, kids, health, or finances. Whenever that worry comes to mind today, tomorrow, or the next day, imagine yourself “placidly closing the eyes of your soul” instead. Pray those simple words: Oh Jesus, I surrender this to you, take care of everything! Repeat as many times as you need to in order to feel the peace of God.

Because peace is the fruit of surrender. We think we need to control everything to have peace, but just the opposite is true. We can have no better outcome than when God is in charge, and we surrender control to him.

Daily Challenges

Now it’s time for the content! Today, we’re sharing the content for days 15-17 of this challenge.

Here’s what’s included for each day below:

☑️ Theme: a focus point for our meditation

☑️ Lectio Divina: audio file of a 5-minute guided meditation, praying with Scripture, focused on the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

☑️ Question: for journaling on your own or discussing right here in the comments

☑️ Action: a simple prompt to put our daily theme into action in your everyday life.

☑️ BONUS Live Video: At the end of the 21 days, we’ll have a live Zoom call discussion on Wednesday, August 28 (see more info and link to register below).

Are you ready to do this? Let’s go!