I just wrote something to someone privately and I think it’s too broadly useful to be kept in the dark, so I’m reposting it here:
What came to my mind as the answer to your question is St. Augustine’s view on this.
God is Eternity, beyond space and time, but this Eternity is also present in space and time as Ariadne’s thread in the labyrinth, and is also an attractor that pulls us towards itself, if we allow it. If we follow the Ariadne’s thread, it shapes our lives in the shape of Eternity, so that we can leave space and time behind and never look back. But there is also the opposite force – worldly attachment, pride, habit and vice, that tries to make us into the shape of the world; all the weakness is of the world and for the world, and all the true strength makes us in the shape of God, where we become Eternity in space, on the path of time.
So this is my answer to your question. Hold on to all the pieces and aspects of Eternity in space and time, and you yourself will become an aspect of Eternity in space and time, and the shape your existence takes on that path will be appropriate for your salvation.
Surrender to God is not letting go, it’s the brilliance of mind that allows you to see, understand and act of God.
But in order to give the brilliance a chance, “letting go” is exactly what one must do … letting go of “worldly attachment, pride, habit and vice, that tries to make us into the shape of the world;”
Words are so tricky, one “understands” them from current state of mind and as state of mind changes, so does the understanding of “letting go” in this case.
I had issues with “letting go” because I felt I need to let go, but it wasn’t clear what because … if I let go, what is left?
Then in a thunderstorm I realised – I need to let go and let the lightning strike through me, and keep going through me.
Not let go and disappear in a black hole.
But the lightning won’t strike if the system is clogged with worldly attachments I so fearfully cling onto – it has no path to go through, until I let those go …
What worked for me? Words from your post … “Everything of value in me is of God and without God I am nothing”. That’s my Ariadne’s thread.