When the World Crashes Around You and Surrender is Your Only Option

Mary DeMuth and I have known each other for many years, even prior to the publication of One Thousand Gifts when we were both bloggers. We have spoken on similar stages and have prayed for each other when we’ve had the joyful opportunity. I know Mary to be a woman of prayer, intention, and honesty. It’s a joy to welcome Mary to the farm’s table today…

Guest Post by Mary DeMuth

I don’t know why freak trials take me by surprise. As a writer, every time a book of mine releases, I am consistently tested in its message.

The Freedom of Surrender is no different, but oh how I wish it were—especially today.

As I’m writing this, my husband is jobless. Happened this morning.

If you know anything about the creative workplace, you’ll know that artsy folks don’t make a normal salary, nor do we have insurance baked into our jobs. So today we lost 75% of our income and our medical coverage. 

It’s a bit terrifying.

In the book, I wrote this about surrendering finances: 

“Like the Israelite people who often forgot about the provision of God, we tend toward forgetfulness too. To remember God’s faithfulness is to retrain our minds toward belief. God is sovereign. He owns it all. He knows how to provide for birds, flowers, and this earth. Surely, he knows how to take care of his children. Thanking him for past provision is a good first step in surrendering your current financial situation to him.”

Funny how it’s easy to write those words, but so hard to live them.

We see the pattern repeated throughout the Scriptures—how prone people are to forget God’s faithfulness and provision.

In my more self-sufficient moments, I inwardly chastise those Israelites for being so forgetful.  How could Israel forget God who constantly delivered, protected, and provided for them?

I forget I am cut from the same cloth. Just call me Israelite.

In Psalm 106, the psalmist recounts God’s powerful deliverance, how he rescued the Israelites from Egyptian might. The result?

“Then his people believed his promises. Then they sang his praise” (verse 12).

All is well. They believed and sang.

But look at the next sentence: “Yet how quickly they forgot what he had done!” (verse 13a). From praise when favorable circumstances reigned to forgetfulness when trials erupted. Have you seen this pattern in your life?

A few hours ago it was easy for me to remember God’s powerful provision. But at a sudden job loss? Panic now settles into my marrow, telling me I’m all alone, fretting me to my core.

“Surrender is a seemingly small act that feels a lot like giving up, but its power lies in letting go of our vice grip on control. “

My stomach erupts. What will happen to us?

My head aches. What will tomorrow look like?

My neck tightens. How can I fix this?

Deep breath. In and out.

Remember.

Soul, has God been faithful in the past?

Yes, he has. 

From job loss, multiple moves, church tumult, broken relationships, missionary struggles, rejections, grief, truth telling fallout, and family anguish to this very moment I’m typing words onto the page, God has been faithful. He has provided. He has wept alongside. He has held us through every bewilderment. 

Friend, it’s normal to feel crushed under the weight of whatever hit you today. It’s normal to be afraid. It’s normal to wonder where God is. It’s normal for your footing to shift. It’s normal for your body to react. It’s normal to let worry win. 

But it’s also normal (and good) to surrender.

Surrender is a seemingly small act that feels a lot like giving up, but its power lies in letting go of our vice grip on control.

It’s a relinquishing of all those unmet expectations, the heartache that ensued, and an embrace of what a new normal will end up becoming.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to surrender right here. Perhaps you can pray these words too?

Jesus, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow. I don’t know how to see my way around this obstacle—it feels immovable, dark, foreboding.

I confess that today’s circumstances stole my breath and soured my stomach.

Help me to breathe.

Teach me to be still.

Help me surrender every worry, every fear, and every conundrum my mind races to understand.

Forgive me for choosing rumination over remembering all that you’ve already done. Forgive me for letting the problem loom larger than you.

My future is in your capable hands.

Thank you that you are far more aware of my fretting than even I am, and you know best how to lead, refine, and care for me. I’m reminded of the words of Oswald Chambers: “God is my Father, He loves me, I shall never think of anything He will forget, why should I worry?”

Please teach me to be mature in you, remembering all you’ve done, and surrendering every single fear to you.

Thank you for having big, capable hands to carry everything I fret about. Amen.

“Surrender is a good response to a bad circumstance.“

Surrender is a good response to a bad circumstance.

And a bad circumstance is an invitation to all of us to remember God’s goodness, share our worries with the One who loves to hold us, and rest in the God who cares deeply for his children. 

I didn’t expect to have a day like today. But I’m grateful God’s invitation is always open for me to surrender.

 1 From My Utmost for His Highest

Mary DeMuth is a literary agent, daily podcaster at Pray Every Day show, Scripture artist, speaker, and the author of 50+ books, including The Freedom of Surrender (IVP, 2025). She lives in Texas with her husband and is the mom of three adult children. Find out more at marydemuth.com.  

In The Freedom of Surrender, Mary DeMuth invites readers to journey through forty days of entrusting specific areas of your life to God—your inner struggles, your family, your expectations, your regrets, your ministry, your grief, your relationships, your job, your health, your finances, your future, and more. Every daily devotion includes Scripture, prayer, and Mary’s original art that help you cast each care on the One who cares for you.

{Our humble thanks to InterVarsity Press for their partnership in today’s devotional.}