When Healing Requires Surrender, Not Control

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding.” — Proverbs 3:5

When Control Stops Working

There comes a moment in healing when effort no longer helps.

You’ve named the wound.
You’ve prayed honestly.
You’ve done the work you know how to do.

And still, nothing moves the way you expected.

At this point, frustration often settles in. We try harder. We manage better. We search for the right prayer, the right insight, the right timeline. Control feels productive, even faithful. After all, isn’t healing something we’re meant to cooperate with?

Yes — but not command.

At some point, healing requires surrender, not strategy.

Why We Try to Control the Healing Process

Most women don’t cling to control because they distrust God. Instead, uncertainty feels unsafe.

Control promises protection.
Control promises clarity.
Control promises results.

However, control also keeps us at the center.

We begin deciding how healing should look. We set expectations for when it should happen. We quietly determine the method God should use. Even prayer can shift from “Lord, lead me” to “Lord, bless what I’ve already decided.”

That shift is understandable.
Still, it becomes exhausting.

Jesus never promised healing on our terms.
He promised healing through relationship.

What Surrender Really Means

Surrender often gets misunderstood as passivity or weakness. In truth, surrender is deeply active. It is the decision to trust Jesus more than your own understanding.

Surrender says:

• I don’t know the timing, but I trust You.
• I don’t understand the method, but I believe You are good.
• I don’t see the full picture, but I know You do.

This kind of trust moves healing out of our hands and back into God’s.

Naturally, that can feel frightening.

Letting go of control means releasing certainty. It means allowing God to work in ways that don’t always make sense, on timelines that don’t match our expectations, and through processes we would not have chosen ourselves.

Yet this is often where the deepest healing begins.

Jesus Heals According to Love, Not Timelines

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus rarely heals the same way twice. Sometimes He speaks. Other times He touches. Occasionally, He asks a question. At times, He waits.

Why?

Because Jesus heals people, not problems.

He cares about the wound, yes — but He also cares about the heart carrying it. He knows when immediate relief would bypass something sacred He wants to heal more deeply. He knows when waiting strengthens trust rather than delays restoration.

Healing under His care is never random.
Instead, it is always relational.

Surrender allows Jesus to address not only what hurts, but what quietly holds us back from wholeness.

What Surrender Looks Like in Real Life

Surrender does not mean you stop praying.
Rather, it means you stop managing the outcome.

It may look like continuing therapy while releasing the pressure to “be better” by a certain date. It may look like praying honestly while resisting the urge to force clarity. Sometimes, it looks like resting when you would rather fix.

Often, surrender sounds like this:
“Jesus, I don’t know how You’ll heal this. I don’t know when. But I trust You more than I trust my need to control it.”

That prayer creates space.

Space for God to work gently.
Space for the Holy Spirit to lead.
Space for healing to unfold at the pace of love.

An Invitation to Trust the Way Jesus Heals

If healing feels stalled right now, it may not be because you’ve done something wrong. Instead, Jesus may be inviting you deeper — not into effort, but into trust.

Surrender does not delay healing.
It deepens it.

So this week, the invitation remains simple, though brave:
trust Jesus with the process, the timing, and the method.

You are not falling behind.
You are being led.

And the One guiding you knows exactly where He is taking you.

YOU ARE loved,
Leslie