Notes of Faith September 19, 2026
I heard something profound in the sermon at my church the other day. My pastor, said the definition of a “fool” is “one who disconnects their actions from the consequences that will follow.” When I first heard that, I thought, I wish this person in my life who is making choices that cause me so much angst could hear this!
But then it hit me squarely between the eyes—this definition was for me. I was disconnecting from what it was actually costing me to live in and react to all this fear. I was so consumed by thinking about the consequences this loved one could face that I wasn’t factoring in what this was doing to me. And the saddest part is that I was the one making foolish choices, wearing myself out trying to fix people and circumstances, and feeling frustrated with God because He was not helping me in the way I thought He should. The foolish one was me. I needed to be reminded of Proverbs 19:3:
A person’s own foolishness leads him astray, yet his heart rages against the Lord. — CSB
Moments of release are important. They help us survive. But we can’t merely release our grip and stay in fear. Releasing alone is not enough. We also must transfer the weight of the outcome to God through the act of surrender.
Now, I want you to take the same deep breath I need to take when I hear the word surrender. Surrendering doesn’t mean that I have to give up on my loved one or completely abandon them in the midst of their current situation.
As we take a look at surrender, let’s first outline what we are NOT saying.
Surrender is not
• ignoring reality
• bypassing pain
• avoiding hard work
• abandoning your post or being irresponsible
• giving up this person to worst-¬case scenarios
• letting yourself get swallowed up by the circumstances of this day
• giving in to the feeling that your circumstances are
• hopeless
Surrender IS
• yielding your need to control the outcome
• laying down the illusion that you know best
• releasing your grip so God can lead
• choosing obedience to God even when it hurts
• letting God carry the weight of what happens from here
• choosing to still see this day as a gift from God and thanking Him for the good parts
• trusting God to hold your hopes and dreams and bring them about in His way and in His timing
Release can sometimes feel like we simply let go of our desires and resign ourselves to whatever happens from here. Or like we let go of a loved one and watch them potentially free-fall off the cliff of their struggle. For a responsible person, this feels all kinds of wrong. And if that’s the mental picture we see when we think of release, it’s no wonder we still sometimes panic and rush back to try to control things again. But that doesn’t have to be the picture we see or the panic and guilt we carry. Instead, picture walking that person or that desire over to the Lord and, as you release your grip, the Lord opens His arms wide. You’re not just releasing it but surrendering this to the only One who can truly help from here.
And with relationships, that doesn’t necessarily mean you then walk away from the person you love. In some more serious or threatening situations, that may be the case. But most scenarios don’t have to be that extreme. You are releasing and surrendering that which is outside of your control, but you can still be a good steward of other aspects of this relationship.
Surrender in this case is not an act of irresponsibility, an admission of failure, or a demand that we stop caring. No, surrender is giving to God what only He can carry so we can be a faithful—responsible—steward of the parts we can carry. We can find the reassurance we need about surrendering people and circumstances to the
Lord in Psalm 28:7:
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise Him.
Oxford Languages defines control as “the power to influence or direct people’s behavior or the course of events.”
We exhaust ourselves trying to change what is not within our ability to change. It impacts our mood, our outlook, the way we treat others, and even causes us to do things we wouldn’t normally do otherwise.
It’s okay to be responsible to manage what is within our responsibility to manage. Taking charge isn’t a bad thing until our desire to keep everyone and everything going in the right direction crosses a line from a good desire to an absolute demand.
Our attempts of exercising control are really an attempt at trying to be like God.
Control happens in three places: the thinking, the knowing, the doing.
THE THINKING:
Genesis 3:1:
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God really say, “You must not eat from any tree in the garden”?’
Notice the Enemy introduces doubt about God and His Word and draws Eve’s thinking away from the truth.
THE KNOWING:
Genesis 3:2–5:
The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.”’ ‘You will not certainly die,’ the serpent said to the woman. ‘For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’
The Enemy tries to make Eve doubt that God has her best interest in mind because He’s withholding information from her. And we see Eve overextending the knowledge she was given by God. God’s Word does not seem to be enough because she adds to God’s words: Not only is the eating of it going to make you die, but the touching of it as well.
THE DOING:
Genesis 3:6:
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Eve did the very thing that God instructed them not to do and suffered the very consequences that He was trying to protect them from. Notice that, if the Enemy could trip Eve up in her thinking and her knowing, he didn’t have to force her to do anything. She chose to disobey God.
Our thinking and knowing will always directly impact our doing.
Where are we going to park our thoughts? Are we going to park our thoughts on all that we don’t know, or on what we can know for sure?
Our brains are wired for the confidence in knowing. If we never know anything in confidence, our brain is going to spin on things it does not know. And out of that confusion and frustration, we will then do the opposite of trusting God—we will try to take control for ourselves.
The word “uncertainty” is not one that most of us like. We want to be certain that things are going to turn out okay.
1 Peter 5:6–9a:
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith.
The Greek word for “cast” in this verse is epiripto. This means to “cast something off of yourself,” thus releasing yourself from the weight of that thing.
One of the senses of the word “cast” is to transfer one’s concerns upon another. And the One that we can cast our cares upon is also the One that we can truly trust.
We can be assured or we can be ashamed. God assures us with His strength. The Enemy shames us with our weakness.
We must park our minds on the strength of what the Lord can do, rather than try to take control and expose how incapable and weak we really are.
James 4:7:
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
God is in control. He will manage all circumstances and issues of life. We can trust the outcome of foolish influences because of the love of God toward us!
Pastor Dale
