But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. 2 Corinthians 3:16-18

DEVOTION

The first recorded use of white flags to symbolize surrender dates back to the Han dynasty beginning in AD 25. White fabric was easy to come by and easy to recognize against the background of nature. White flags are still used today as the notification on battlefields to let the other side know that the current circumstances have beaten you down and you can no longer keep going. As a result, you lose your vision for where you were going in the first place.

Isn’t that how most of us feel at some point in our lives? We’ve fought as hard as we can, but we can’t seem to get to the result we desire. The longer we fight, the blurrier our vision becomes until we reach the point of utter exhaustion. Like warriors on the battlefield, we have one of two options. We can give up and write it off as a lost cause or we can abandon ourselves at the feet of our Father.

When we choose the latter, the veil over our eyes begins to be removed as we rest in the peace and freedom of surrender. Our vision becomes clear and we now see we could never get where we were going without surrendering.

PRAYER

Father, as we press further into this new year, we pray program participants of The Foundry wave their white flag of surrender and declare they can no longer fight this battle on their own. May you unveil their eyes to see you clearly and bring into focus your sovereign and eternal plan. In Jesus name, Amen.