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The Dynamic Catholic Ambassadors Club. You're awesome.

Okay. And then go.

Surrender is—

Fruitful.

Timely.

Possible.

Overflowing.

Let God surprise you.

Welcome back to Best Land Ever. I hope you're enjoying our discussion of surrender. I hope it's challenging you. I hope you find yourself in moments of the day like, this is it, this is what he's talking about. Because that's why we get together like this, so that we can take the great truths of our faith and learn how to live them every day in practical situations so that they can improve our lives and the lives of everyone we encounter. I want to talk to you today about the 11th maxim. The 11th maxim is I prioritize God's will over my personal preferences, ambitions, and fears. I prioritize God's will. How often do you ask God to reveal His will to you? We read the Scriptures. Jesus had this constant communication with the Father, constantly connected with the Father. And of course, in his famous words, "Not my will, but thy will be done." He gives us, again, one of those mini gospels. It's like, it's all there. It's like, not my will, but thy will be done. That's a complete surrender, right? It's complete surrender to God. And that's what we're talking about today. I prioritize God's will over my personal preferences, ambitions, and fears. And which of those three do we struggle with the most? I love the phrase I prioritize God's will. We talk a lot about doing God's will, but in order to do God's will, we have to prioritize God's will over other things. Our will, for starters, and our will manifests in different ways. And the Maxim talks about three in particular. It talks about personal preferences, ambitions, and fears. So we all have personal preferences. We like things to be done a certain way, like to go to certain places rather than other places, to hang out with certain people rather than other people. These personal preferences, we all have them. But are we willing to prioritize God's will over our personal preferences? The second category is ambitions. We've all got ambitions, hopes, dreams, and visions for the future. Things that we would like to see happen. But if God tapped you on the shoulder today and said, no, that's not for you. There's some great ambition you have. Maybe you've been thinking about it for a long time. But if God tapped you on the shoulder today and said, "No, leave that alone. That's not for you." How willing to do that would you be? How readily would you surrender that ambition to God? And the last of the three categories that Maxim points out is fears. What are your fears? And are you willing to prioritize God's will over your fears? What is that? That's courage, right? That's courage. And in order to prioritize God's will over our fears, we have to have courage. Where's the courage come from? Courage comes from the first maxim, you know? Think about what we talked about the other day. The first maxim is, I trust that God's plans for my life are good, even when I don't understand my current circumstances, when we believe that when we do live that maxim, we become filled with courage. Because we trust, we believe that God's plans are good for us, even if we don't understand what's going on right now.

And so here in the 11th Maxim, in order to prioritize God's will over our fears, in order to prioritize God's will over our fears, we need courage. Let's ask God to give us courage today. The courage to prioritize His will over our personal preferences, the courage to prioritize His will over our ambitions, and the courage to prioritize His will over our fears. The opening line of this chapter reads, "Are you a good follower?" The world tells us we need to develop our leadership skills. It's true, we do. But the best leaders are good followers. The way of surrender is an invitation to follow Jesus more faithfully than ever before. Are you a good follower?

Pray about being a good follower today. If you haven't already taken the assessment, I hope your curiosity is significantly peaked and that you will click the button below and take the assessment today. Develop this self-knowledge, this insight into how you are surrendering to God and how you're struggling to surrender to God. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

God of miracles, wonders, and grace.

I thank you for all the good you have done in my life.

For the miracles I recognize.

And the many graces I so often overlook.

I open my heart completely to you today.

Inviting you.

To completely inhabit my soul.

So that through me.

Others may encounter your love.

Your mercy.

Your compassion.

Your kindness.

And your staggering generosity.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen. Thank you, Ambassadors. You are changing the world. Have a great day.

Have a great day.

Have a great day.