When God Asks for What You Prayed For🦋🤍

What do you do when God asks for the very thing you prayed for?

The promise…
 The relationship…
 The breakthrough…
 The answered prayer…

Sometimes God will place it in your hands…
 only to ask you to place it back on the altar. Not to take from you, but to free you from it. Because anything you cannot surrender…
 can quietly become your source.

This episode will challenge you, stretch you, and remind you:

God is not after what you have,
He’s after your heart.

🎧 Listen now.

#BeautifulMe #FaithWalk #Surrender #TrustGod #PurposeJourney #Obedience #HealingJourney #Genesis22 #FaithOverFear #BeautifulMeMinistry

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Good morning, good morning, good morning, and welcome to the Beautiful Me Empowerment Ministry Podcast, a space where healing meets truth, identity is restored, and we learn how to walk boldly in who God has called us to be. I'm your host, Monique Anderson, certified empowerment coach, licensed therapist, and your sister on this journey of healing, faith, and purpose. And I've missed you, but you know, God has been working, He never stops working, as a matter of fact. And I for I I used to do the podcast every morning, but I am just go walking in obedience, you know, with what the Lord has laid on my heart. So the podcast will not be every morning, but we are still here, amen. Uh, a lot has been happening, and I am truly grateful. I imagine a lot has been happening in your life as well. Because I always say that life is life in, it never stops, but while life is life in God is also guiding. The Bible tells us He will never leave us nor forsake us. Doesn't matter what it is that we are going through: the good, the bad, the ugly, the ups, the downs, the hills, the valleys, the mountains. You know, God is in the midst of all of it, right? And so I want to say from the get-go that you are not alone, you're never alone. Amen. So, today we're gonna talk about uh something I did mention it a couple weeks ago when uh no, not a couple weeks ago, a few days ago, when I spoke about um the in-between space, the in-between space where God had told Abraham that you will be the father of many nations, and there was a moment in time when Abraham looked at his situation and it did not look anything like what God was talking about, it looked impossible in essence. Uh, it looked like a wilderness moment, an endless wilderness moment. I think it looked to Abraham and Sarah that hey, time is running out on me, and I don't see God doing anything, like I know what he's done, and I know the vision that he's given me, but here I am in the in-between and of of that of the thing. However, we realize though that even though at some point in time Abraham and Sarah they stepped outside of the will of God, and you know, they got back in line and they received the promise, the thing that they have been waiting for. They receive the promise, however, after receiving the promise, God asked Abraham to sacrifice the promise, and so I did say we were gonna talk about when God asks for what you've prayed for. What do you do when God asks you to surrender the very thing you prayed for, waited for, cried for, and finally received. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for your grace and your mercies and your favor, oh God. Upon our lives, we thank you this morning, God, that we're on the wake up, please. We thank you, oh God, for all the blessings of a father, they are countless. The songwriter says, Count your many blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one. And so, God, we are grateful. Uh, we thank you, and we invite you into this moment. We ask you, God, this morning to speak to the parts of us that are holding on tightly. We ask you to heal the areas that are afraid to trust you again. We ask you, God, to give us the courage to surrender, the wisdom to understand, and the faith to believe that your plans are still good even when they don't feel good. In Jesus' name, amen. So, today, uh, our anchor scripture, of course, it will be about Abraham. So, the scripture tells us, Abraham. Sorry, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him there as a burnt offering. Let's break it down a little. God said, Your son, and that is personal, your only son, meaning he is irreplaceable, and then he said, Whom you love, and that represents emotional attachment. God was very specific with this instruction that he gave to Abraham, because sometimes God will call you to surrender the thing that is most meaningful to you, and it is not because he wants to hurt you, but it is because he wants to reveal something in you. See, Isaac was not just Abraham's son, Isaac was the promise, the very thing God gave is the very thing God asked for. The story of Abraham and Isaac is not just about obedience, it is also about what sits on the throne of your heart. Because surrender is not truly tested when God asks you to give up what you never wanted. Surrender is tested when he asks for what you love, value, and waited for. And so Isaac represented more than just a son, he represented fulfilled promise, he represented answered prayer, he represented identity as a father, he represented hope for the future, evidence that God came through. So when God asked for Isaac, when God asked for Isaac, he wasn't just asking for a sacrifice, he was confronting where Abraham's trust was rooted. So God was here testing priority, not loyalty. Abraham had already proved loyalty, he had already left his homeland, he had already followed God into the unknown. So you may ask the question, why test? What why this test? Because there is a difference between following God and trusting him with what he gives you. Because the truth is, you can follow God and still hold tightly to the blessing, you can obey God and still build your identity around the promise. So God needed Abraham to understand that I am still your source even after I bless you. Sometimes we don't realize it, but we begin to anchor ourselves in what God gave us instead of God Him Himself. So we start anchoring ourselves in the relationship, which becomes our security, we anchor ourselves in the ministry, which becomes our identity. We uh anchor ourselves in success, which becomes our validation, and we anchor ourselves in the promise because your proof of worth. And slowly, slowly but subtly, the gift begins to take the place of the giver, and that is when God steps in. God steps in to protect you because he is intentional about you. God is intentional about soul care because anything we depend on more than God will eventually collapse under pressure. God will not compete with what he gave you, God will bless you, but he will not allow the blessing to replace him. So sometimes he will ask you to release it because it is too central, it's not because it's wrong, it's because it's too central. He is asking you, can you trust me without it? Can you love me without needing proof? Can you follow me when I disrupt your expectations? Because if your relationship with God is built on what he does for you, then what happens when he asks you to let it go? And so Abraham lifting the knife, it was not about death. What it revealed was that his faith was not conditional, his trust was not circumstantial, and his obedience, it was not dependent on outcome, and that is the place God is trying to bring us to a place where we can say, God, even if I don't understand, I trust you, and I call it radical trust. And my daddy, I will always talk about my daddy, my daddy always remind me more. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding, but in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path. Surrender breaks control. So at its core, surrender is about releasing control. Because if we're honest, many times we don't just want the promise. What we want is to control how it plays out. So we want the relationship to look a certain way, the timeline to move faster, and we want the outcome to match our expectation. But surrender says, God, I trust you more than I trust my plan. What are you willing to place on the altar? Or let me turn it another way. What you are willing to place on the altar is what God can trust you to carry. Because once it's surrendered, it no longer defines you, it no longer controls you, it no longer owns your identity, and so you can now carry it without being consumed by it. I was listening to my girlfriend's podcast yesterday, and she mentioned, she said, God is not random, God is very strategic in every single thing that He does. I always say that in all of the madness that God does, there's a reason behind all of the madness. Because Romans 8, verse 28 still stands where he says, All things, not some things, but all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord and are called unto his purpose. And we are called, there's no doubt we are called, and so here God was never after Isaac, he was after Abraham's complete dependence because God is not trying to take from you, he is trying to ensure that nothing in your life has the power to take his place. Sometimes, yes, God will ask for what he gave you to make sure you never confuse the promise with the promiser. And when your heart is rightly aligned, you don't just receive the blessing, you become the kind of person who can sustain it. And I like in those seasons and in those moments, God is building your capacity because whatever it is that God has promised you, if it is ministry, if it is children, if it is a business, if it is health, if it is a spouse, those things they are all ministries and they carry weight, they carry weight, purpose is weighty, and God does not want any one of us to be crushed under the weight of the different ministries that he has called us to. And so, what he does is if it means that he has to ask us to surrender it, what he is doing, he is building our capacity to carry it, right? When God asks you to surrender something you deeply desire, it doesn't just feel spiritual either, but it feels psychological, emotional, and even physical. And I believe that this is one of the hard parts because what you're releasing is not just a thing, it's meaning, it's identity and attachment, and attachment, like if we look at attachment, it is it's like a bond, right? So we bond with people, we bond with outcomes and experiences. Why? Because they make us feel safe, they make us feel secure, they make us feel valued, they they make us feel seen. So when God asks us to release something that we've attached to, our nervous system can interpret it as a threat or loss or even instability. And that is why surrender can feel like anxiety, it feels like we're losing control, it feels like resistance, it feels like emotional overwhelm because our brain is trying to protect what it believes is keeping you safe. But the truth is, not everything you're attached to is actually sustaining you. Sometimes it's just comforting you. Many of the things God asks us to surrender, they've become part of our identity structure. So I am the one in this relationship, or I am successful because of this role, or or I am valid because of this opportunity, or I am okay because this worked out. So it's it it's it is now forming our identity. We formed our identity around our different ministries. So when God says release it, I guess the question becomes, who am I without it? And that question can feel destabilizing because psychologically, when identity is tied to external things, removal feels like loss of self, is like you lose a piece of you or a part of you, but God is inviting us into deeper identity, one that is not dependent on circumstances, and then there's control versus trust at a psychological level. Control is often a response to uncertainty and fear. So we try to control outcomes, we try to control relationships, we try to control timelines, we try to control how things unfold because control creates the illusion of safety, but surrender disrupts that surrender removes the illusion and forces us into a space of uncertainty, vulnerability, and dependence. And we're afraid of that for many people. That is uncomfortable, it is even uncomfortable for me, especially if you've experienced trauma, disappointment, betrayal, loss of control in the past. So surrender, it is not just about spiritual, it can trigger old wounds. I'm in a season where God is asking me to surrender something that I've prayed for the promise, and it hurts like crazy, and I'm like, really, God, and it hurts because yes, it has triggered old wounds, and I sit and I'm like, God, you know, life is so unfair, and then my overthinking goes into overdrive, and fear pops in because there is fear beneath the surrender. Surrender often activates core fears. What if I lose this and never get it back? What if God doesn't come through again? What if I'm left empty? What if I make I made a mistake trusting? And these fears are real, however, what it reveals is where our trust has been placed because psychologically we cling to what we believe guarantees stability. But I don't want you to despise the season where God is asking you to surrender what you've waited for, what you've prayed for. Do not despise that season because God is rewiring our internal security. When he asks for surrender, he is not trying to create instability, but he is trying to shift your source of security. So he's trying to shift us from external validation to internal identity in him, he is trying to shift us from control to trust, he is trying to shift us from attachment to alignment, and he is trying to shift us from fear to faith, and this is what we call secure identity formation. It is a place where you're not defined by what you have, you are not shaken by what you you lose, you are not dependent on outcomes to feel whole, and yes, surrender can feel like grief, it can feel like loss, right? Because you're letting go of expectations, you're letting go of Imagined futures, you're letting go of emotional attachments, but what's actually happening is integration. God is aligning your emotions with truth, your identity with purpose, and your desires with His will, right? And it takes time, so you're not being asked to rush. You can only sustain what you have the emotional capacity to carry. If God gives you something your internal world cannot hold, you will self-sabotage it. You will lose yourself in it. You will become overwhelmed by it. And so surrender is not just about letting go. Surrender is about building capacity. Capacity to handle success without losing your identity. Capacity to love without losing boundaries. Capacity to lead without losing yourself. And the capacity to receive without idolizing. At its core, the truth is surrender is an invitation into healing. Where God is saying, Let me heal your fear of loss. Let me heal your need for control. Let me heal your attachment wounds. Let me become your foundation. Because when you're healed internally, you no longer cling to things to complete you. You can receive them without being ruled by them. And so in this season, what feels like God taking something from you may actually be God freeing you from unhealthy attachment, misplaced identity, and fear-based control. So you can finally become emotionally whole and spiritually aligned. So I want you to anchor yourself in this truth today. I am not losing myself, I am finding who I am beyond what I was holding on to. And as I said, you are not navigating these seasons alone. You're navigating them with God. The Bible tells us time and time again, over and over, where he says, I God, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am right there with you in the fire. Even when you feel like you're going under, the water will not overtake you. He is with you. Right? If we think about the three Hebrew boys as they went in the fiery furnace, they were not alone. There was a fourth man in the fire. God does not test us to fail us, He tests us to reveal us. And Abraham's willingness to surrender, Isaac showed obedience over emotion, it shows trust over understanding and faith over control. And in this season, God wants to take us deeper. Right? Before Abraham could complete the sacrifice, we see what happened. God provided a ram. And this means that God never intended for Abraham to lose Isaac. What he intended was for Abraham to release control. And so sometimes in our own life, Isaac may look like a relationship that we waited for for years. It may look like a job opportunity that we've prayed for. It's a ministry that we've built. It's a season that we finally feel settled in. It's a version of life that finally makes sense. And then God says, give it back to me. And it's not because Daddy God is cruel, because he's not. But he sees what we cannot, he knows the end from the beginning. He is Alpha Omega. So Alpha beginning Omega End. He sees. I mean, he's the author of our stories. And be assured this morning by what Jeremiah says. He says in the in scripture, the Bible says, Before I formed you, I knew you. He said he chose you, he called you and chose you as a prophet of a nation. And these are promises. There are so many promises in the Bible that God, so many things that God has promised us. But in order for us to carry the promise, He has to build our capacity to handle the weight that comes with what He has given us to carry. Because carrying the promise, it is stewardship. So sometimes He will interrupt what you love to protect what He called you to. Again, because we cannot see what He is seeing. God is not confused about our life, He is not undoing our blessing and He's not punishing us. He is refining our dependence. Because if He doesn't deal with our attachment, our purpose will carry weight that we cannot sustain. So this morning, if you are in a season where God is asking you to release something, I want you to remember that surrender is not the end of your story. It is the doorway to deeper intimacy with God. It is the doorway to greater clarity. It is the doorway to stronger identity. It is the doorway. It is God is expanding capacity. And sometimes God will give it back to you in a way that no longer has control over you. And so, Father, help us to trust you with what we don't understand. Give us the strength to release what we love without fearing that we will lose what you promised. And if there is anything in our lives, God, that we are holding tighter than we are holding you, reveal it and help us to surrender it. Father, teach us that you are our source, not the blessing. And give us the peace in knowing that what you ask for, you are able to restore, redeem, or replace according to your will. In Jesus' name, amen. I want to thank you for joining me on the Beautiful Me Empowerment Ministry Podcast. And if this episode spoke to you, share it with someone who may be struggling to trust God in their surrender season. And remember, God will never ask you for something without having a greater purpose attached to your obedience. So stay rooted, stay surrendered, stay aligned. God bless you. I love you. Have an amazing week in the Lord. I love you, but God loves you even more.