Camp Surrender

This past weekend I had the pleasure of working with a team of ladies (camp hosts) who put together a dry camping (which means porta-potty's & no showers) women's retreat. We called it Camp Surrender because our theme was "surrender". Our women's Bible study will be starting back up next week and we are studying Laura Story's "I Give Up the secret joy of a surrendered life" so I am looking forward to learning more about surrendering my life to God. How about you? Do you feel as if you need to surrender an area of your life? If so, I recommend getting her book & study guide.

What I learned from this is experience was that each one of us was taught how to surrender throughout the entire process, even right up to the moment of the retreat starting. As most of you know northern California has fires burning which means there is smoke everywhere and when we woke up day of the retreat we realized it was too smoky & unhealthy to be outdoors and we had to come up with an alternative plan. The questions we faced were where will everyone sleep, eat & of course how would we do the activities we had plan etc. once again we were being asked to surrender it all to God.

A while back I remembered hearing about a lady who prayed for no rain during a graduation ceremony despite the weather forecast saying there would be storms. Do you know it rained outside the stadium, but was sunny inside? Her faith reminded me of Elijah's, and when I thought of her I began to pray "Father, please lift the smoke so that we do not smell it and we are able to have our retreat outside" and do you know the smoke lifted when the ladies arrived. We had the entire retreat outdoors as planned, the women were able to kayak & enjoy the lake and when the retreat was over the smoke rolled back in & you couldn't be outside due to the smell of it. God showed us once again, HE was in complete control.

James 5:17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

As Laura Story says "A decision to study God's Word is an investment in your spiritual life and an active choice to nourish your soul." Friends, I hope you will make that decision and make God a priority in your life, because we cannot get through this life without him.

This is Laura Story's song "I give up" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAG7bumfuS4

Is there something you need to surrender?

Remember Laura says "Living with humility does not come naturally to any of us. Willingly putting ourselves second or third does not seem to make sense. Surrendering to God's will is a learned skill that takes a lifetime to develop. The more we take our lives and place them before God, the more we will be changed from the inside out."

Written by: Jill Theriault

Crossroads Coaching - @crossroadscoachingongodstime