The Sacred Surrender: The Art Of Believing vs. Hoping

“The word surrender has significant roots, in which ‘render’ has the meaning to melt and ‘sur’ means super or highest. In other words, the true meaning of surrender is to melt into that which is higher than yourself. True surrender is a conscious choice made from free will.” – Margot Anand

I was intrigued and delightfully fascinated when I heard someone mention the definition of surrender from the etymology of the word recently. Etymology is one of my passions, and I was swooning over this profound new discovery with a powerful word. She said that a friend of hers told her that surrender actually meant: ‘to melt into something higher.”

Mmmmmm….isn’t that deliciously poetic?! I was bowled over in awe of this new definition. What a blissful way to define a conscious decision to let go, lean back into sovereignty, and let go of control. Complete surrender is allowing God to take over in all areas of your life. Humans tend to want to be in control as a means to feel safe. But the only way to feel truly safe and free is to let go and fall into the comforting arms of Jesus as he takes control.

So much peace washes over you when you surrender.

Now let’s look at the word hope. I used to think that hope was a very positive word. If you really look deeper, hope is coming from a lack mentality instead of an abundance mindset. In abundance – we trust, we believe. We have an innate knowing that all is well. Everything is always working out for me. When we believe, we aren’t looking for evidence of what’s to come in our life. We just deeply know that it is all coming together for the best possible outcome.

Like we believe in God without actually seeing him, it is a blind trust. It is a deep faith, coming from love, even in the face of uncertainty. Hope, while it may seem the same, is coming from a place of fear. You can feel it when you go deeper into how the word feels in your body. “I hope it works out..” “I think it might..” versus “I believe in this….” “I believe my dreams will come true.”

I believe. It is a decision. Hope is depending on someone else but lacks your own certainty. Hope is more like a maybe. Believe is a YES! When you believe and have faith – you just know that no matter what happens, God has already divinely aligned every aspect of your life, and it will all be ok. Belief is a surrender. Hope is an uncertainty. Belief is from love. Hope is from fear. Hope is a wish. Belief is knowing. Hope is a want. Belief is something you already have.

As verbs, the difference between hope and belief is that hope is to want something to happen while belief is to think something is true without having proof or empirical evidence. Hope is it may or may not happen, and we want it to happen. Believe just knows that something is true without needing to see proof or see any evidence. Believing is the feminine energy of absolute sovereignty. The feminine energy is all about being. There is no doing. No hoping. No wishing.

Her embodiment is absolute faith and trust that everything meant for her is coming to her in divine timing. There’s no rush, no worry, just trust. God has it all figured out. You don’t have to do anything.

Just be.

Surrender. Melting into something higher….

Journaling prompts:

Where in your life are you hoping instead of believing? How can you strengthen your belief?

Want to dive deeper into surrender and your feminine energy?