Today's Surrender Is Tomorrow's FreedomSample

“DADDY! She’s on fire!”

I was doing food prep in the kitchen while my daughters were eating breakfast. The younger one was sitting in her high chair gnawing on fruit, a safe distance from the tea kettle warming water for my oatmeal. BANG! The teapot exploded, spewing shrapnel and boiling water all over her. She wasn’t on fire, but her skin was melting and running down her face and arm.

The nearest ambulance and hospital were 25 minutes away, so I put our daughter in her car seat and sped toward the hospital.

As I drove, she fell silent. No screaming. No crying. No breath sounds. Her car seat was just far enough behind me that I could reach her, so I started swatting her car seat, yelling, “Breathe. Cry. Scream. Wake up.” It was a long, quiet eternity. I kept swatting and screaming, “God, save my daughter. Don’t let her die. She is Yours. Forever. Do what you want, but please don’t let her die.”

The Zarephath widow could relate to our horrific morning. In exchange for a daily food supply, she and her only son had taken in a foreign prophet. It had been a good arrangement…until her son got sick and died.

We seem to have two impulses when our kids are suffering. We either cast blame, or we beg for mercy…sometimes both. The Zarephath widow blamed Elijah: “What do you have against me?” She blamed Elijah’s God: “man of God.” She even blamed herself: “Did you come to remind me of my sin?”

Instead of blaming, God invites us to surrender.

Speaking God’s words, Elijah said, “Give me your child.” He ran upstairs to his room and begged God to raise the boy back to life. This took incredible faith. This is the first time in Scripture that God raised anybody back to life. Elijah had never seen God do that kind of miracle.

I don’t know what your child or loved one is facing, but I am confident that the God who raised a dead, unbelieving boy back to life is holding out His arms asking the same thing of you: “Give me your child.”

Surrendering your child is not a one-time decision. It’s more like rungs on a ladder. Remember, on the other end of this ladder is the only One Who can do the kind of miracle that you have never seen or heard of before.