Monday, September 22, 2014

Withholding



"I surrender all to You
  Everything I give to You
  withholding nothing
  withholding nothing…"*

She stood with the others. The words swirled around her and pierced her heart. "Withholding nothing." She lifted her hands - palms up - open to heaven. But oh that piercing. Could she sing those words and not feel the reality of a divided a heart?

She thought back to a time when someone told her there was a prayer she could pray to find what she was longing for. Once prayed, her life would change, and she would be all she longed to be in Him. She had been a Believer since childhood, but this was something more. The longing drove her to the ground. She cried out the prayer - meant it with all her heart - but the miracle didn't happen.

In her disappointment, she somehow knew it couldn't have been so. All she longed to be didn't happen in a moment. It was a long, slow journey of moving toward Him and falling back over and over again. She came to understand the joy and sorrow of it; the glorious, painful process of becoming more like Him.

So she lifted hands to heaven, and whispered her desire to give Him everything. He took her hands and began the process of gently opening one finger at a time.

*"Withholding Nothing" by William McDowell



Blessings,
Linda