When I take my dogs for a walk, Murphy will trot on ahead with a bold and cocky confidence, completely unperturbed if I am close by or not. Pacino on the other hand will keep looking back to see if I am behind him. If I stop to talk to someone, Pacino stops too. If I sit down on a park bench, Pacino comes to sit near me. He lacks all the confidence that Murphy has in bucketloads! Simply put, Pacino only feels safe when he can see I am around and Murphy’s security comes from knowing that I will be there all the time whether he’s checking or not.

I think I have always had a bit of a Murphy in me. When I was a lot younger and going through my rebellious stage, there always seemed to be this physical Presence at my right shoulder. I could be in the most ungodly places and that sense was there regardless.

What made me so confident that God was always with me was sometimes the very same thing that allowed me to strut on ahead as my dog does without feeling the need to look back and check that I wasn’t alone. Perhaps a bit of a Pacino attitude would have served me better?

I have to wonder why He never gave up on me and left me to my own devices. The obvious choice for Him would surely have been to focus His grace on a much more deserving person. And yet, here I am today, still so completely aware of Him but now doing my best daily to make sure He is at the center of it all.

If I think about it, it’s almost as if God had a hook in the scruff of my neck. Each time I started to sink, He would pull the rope attached to the hook and up I’d come! There were and still are so many instances that it’s surprising I don’t have whiplash!

How often do we take detours in panic -stricken moments even as we pray for Him to intervene? How often do we know the path to take but choose instead the one where we are in control. Where our feet and our minds take us on a trip so far from where God has told us to go only to realise our mistake way down the road, that getting back takes even longer than the journey took to get there. Its only then that we see that our strength, our wisdom and our own methods of fixing things only served to make us more desperate, more anxious and sent us right up that crocodile filled creek without a paddle or even a canoe!

I really want you to hear this truth today: God is for YOU! His arm is NOT too short to save you no matter how far down the path you’ve gone. His ear is STILL open to your cries for help. His Spirit is willing and able to rescue you completely. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you hold all the keys to wisdom and knowledge. You may not fully understand your situation, condition, or circumstances. What you know is like those pictures of the tips of icebergs. It is just a small little peak above the surface of the water. What you can’t see is the massive mountain underneath of which you know nothing.

Surrender to the One who knows it all is the only way to have that peace and those answers that you crave. Today is a perfect day to hand over the title deeds to your future and to fall back into those arms that encircle you. That’s where you will find rest for your soul and a lifting of every burden that has kept you fearful and small. As Elsa sings in Disney’s Frozen, LET IT GO!!

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
    I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
    that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.” Psalm 32:8-9

Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. Isaiah 59:1

You, like your ancestors before you, have turned away from my laws and have not kept them. Turn back to me, and I will turn to you. But you ask, ‘What must we do to turn back to you. Malachi 3:7

“God, all at once you turned on a floodlight for me! You are the revelation-light in my darkness, and in your brightness I can see the path ahead. With you as my strength I can crush an enemy horde, advancing through every stronghold that stands in front of me. Yahweh, what a perfect God you are! All Yahweh’s promises have proven true. What a secure shelter for all those who turn to hide themselves in you, the wraparound God.”
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭18‬:‭28‬-‭30‬ ‭TPT‬‬