Surrender to God: What Your Daily Habits Are Really Building

Editor’s note – Habit trackers and consistency challenges are everywhere right now, most promising more followers or more income. This one is different: a woman using a 21-day challenge to train herself toward surrender instead of self-sufficiency. Her honesty about wanting God’s will only when it matches her own is worth reading slowly. We’re running this piece because the habits we build are never neutral, and she’s asking the right question about where hers are actually pointing.

A 21-Day Challenge With a Deeper Aim

I’m currently part of a Skool community called The Threads Code, and we’re working through a 21-day consistency challenge. The community itself focuses on marketing and growing on Threads, but this particular challenge isn’t only about business or making money. The community leader is a Christian, and she’s encouraging us to use these 21 days to build better habits while also growing in our faith.

We’re working on six habits each day. We’re encouraged to listen to something positive or faith-building, whether that’s a motivational audio, a Christian podcast, or the Bible app, and to read at least one page of a book. One page might not sound like much, but if someone isn’t currently reading at all, one page is a place to start.

The challenge also includes posting at least three times a day on social media, including content that encourages others, and leaving at least ten authentic comments on other people’s posts. From a business perspective, we’re supposed to complete at least one income-producing activity each day, such as reaching out to someone or emailing our subscriber list. Then there’s habit number six.

That one is personal. We each choose something we want to intentionally work on for ourselves during these 21 days.

My Personal Habit Is About Surrender

The habit I chose has nothing to do with social media.

I’m working on intentionally kneeling when I pray in the morning and at night. I know the physical position itself isn’t what makes a prayer more spiritual, and there are obviously plenty of situations where I can’t kneel to pray. But for me personally, kneeling has become a physical reminder of surrendering myself to God and acknowledging His lordship over my life.

I’m also trying to carry that habit into the rest of my day in another way. When I’m home and start feeling stressed or worried about something, I want to stop what I’m doing and pray instead of letting myself keep going over the problem in my mind.

Of course, I’m not going to kneel down in the middle of a parking lot while I’m running errands or try to kneel in my car. The deeper habit I’m developing isn’t really about my body position anyway. It’s about training my first response to be prayer instead of worry.

I want prayer to become so natural that when something happens, my mind goes to God before it starts trying to solve everything on its own.

That connects with something else I’ve been intentionally working on this year.

My word for 2026 is “intentional,” and one area where I’ve especially wanted to apply that word is in my decision-making. I want to slow down, pray, and seek God’s direction instead of making a quick decision simply because I think I know what’s best. I’ve made enough rash decisions in my life to know where that can lead.

Editor’s note – Kneeling isn’t a formula. But posture can train the heart; a physical act of submission shapes the mind. The habit worth building is prayer as a first response instead of worry – whether or not kneeling is part of it.

Am I Really Willing to Let God Define My Purpose?

For this challenge’s reading portion, I chose The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren.

I’ve actually read the book before. When it first came out years ago, our church went through it together, and we discussed the devotional material in our small groups. It’s probably been around 20 years since I last read it, so when I saw it on the suggested reading list for this challenge, I decided it was time to pick it up again. Something I read today immediately stood out.

Warren writes, “You were made by God and for God.”

He explains that discovering our purpose doesn’t begin with looking inward and trying to figure ourselves out. It begins with God, our Creator. We have to understand our identity, meaning, purpose, and ultimate direction in relationship to Him. That resonated with me because it’s exactly what I’ve been wrestling with this year.

We call Jesus Lord.

But do we always want His lordship over every area of our lives? I’m asking myself that question too. It’s easy to say I want God’s will when His will matches mine. It’s harder when I’m praying about something and wondering whether His answer might be different from the answer I want.

There have certainly been times in my life when I’ve wanted to do my own thing. I’ve thought I knew what was best. I’ve moved too quickly.

If I’m completely truthful, there have probably been times when I didn’t really want to ask God what He wanted because I was afraid His answer might interfere with what I had already decided I wanted.

That’s not surrender.

Editor’s note – This is the question under most disobedience: not whether God exists, but whether we want Him in charge. Rick Warren’s line lands because it reorders the search – purpose starts with the Creator, not a self-discovery project. Worth asking plainly how much of daily life is actually submitted.

Slowing Down Gives Me Room to Listen

I’m learning that one of the most practical ways I can surrender to God is simply to slow down.

• Not every decision needs an immediate answer.
• Not every emotion needs an immediate reaction.
• Not every problem needs me to start figuring out a solution within the next five minutes.

I can stop. I can pray. I can feel whatever I’m feeling without allowing that feeling to make the decision for me. I can acknowledge the fear, frustration, excitement, disappointment, or anxiety and then bring it to God.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

I’ve read those verses many times, but I’m trying to live them more intentionally. In all your ways submit to Him.

That means my work. My writing. My business decisions. My relationships. My finances. My plans. My reactions. My future. All of it.

Editor’s note – That’s a hard list to live – work, finances, relationships, reactions, all of it submitted rather than managed. Most of us default to asking God to bless plans we’ve already made. Naming the whole list is a good check on which surrender we’re actually practicing.

I don’t believe God is trying to hide His will from us while we desperately search for clues. I believe He wants us to seek Him, stay close to Him, know His Word, listen to the Holy Spirit, and become willing to follow when He directs us.

Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

A lamp doesn’t necessarily illuminate miles of road ahead. It gives enough light to take the next step. Maybe that’s another habit I’m developing during these 21 days without even realizing it.

I don’t need to know everything God will do with my life. I need to stay close enough to Him to take the next step He shows me. That’s the kind of consistency I want to develop – not simply consistency that helps me accomplish more, but consistency that continually brings me back to God.

Twenty-one days can help establish a habit. But I want the habits I’m developing now to continue shaping how I live long after this challenge ends.

If you were doing this 21-day consistency challenge, what personal habit would you want to intentionally develop?

A Word from the Editor
Twenty-one days won’t finish this work. Surrender isn’t a habit you complete; it’s a posture you return to daily. Psalm 119:105 promises light for the next step, not the whole map – which means showing up again tomorrow, and asking God what He wants before deciding you already know.

Editor Comment: Your honesty about wanting God's will only when it matches your own is a needed, gracious challenge for readers examining their own habits this year.

This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.