The question came up at Chick-fil-a of all places. I sat, listening to a friend, nodding here and there as she poured her heart out. She asked questions she already knew the answers to and I smiled knowing that she just wanted someone to listen.
“I know God has this, I know he’s in control, down to every last detail… He knows how this will all turn out.”
I let her words sink in before slowly nodding.
What she said was true. God is in control. But something else was tugging at my heart as she spoke.
As Christians, we allow Christ to have control of our hearts.
We all have the freedom of choice. It’s given to us when we are conceived. The ability to choose. That’s love. If love wasn’t a choice, if it wasn’t a freely given decision, it wouldn’t be love. The same can be said for control in our hearts.
Whether you believe in God or not, I’m sure you can agree that you, yourself, don’t control everything that goes on around you. You can’t even control how you feel sometimes. I’ve come to truly realize the depth of that recently. Even if i could control how I feel, I wouldn’t want to. Because I don’t always do what’s best for me, or for those around me…. I don’t even know what’s best sometimes.
That’s why I need Jesus.
Forget, for a moment, everything you’ve ever been told about the Christian religion. Forget the fact that there is church on Sundays, and that Christians are hypocrites.
Let’s simply talk about how we crave something more than us. Something deeper, something that will make sense of our mess, something that will give us purpose, something that will satisfy us, once and for all.
We spend our whole lives clawing to the top of our social ladders, striving to be better. But better than what? Everything?
Lets talk about the things that we have given control of our lives to.
Self.
Other people.
Insecurity.
Greed.
Addiction.
Lust.
These things feel good at first, don’t they? That’s why we run back to them. They feel good initially, but the feeling fades.
But, if you’ve ever given up control, I think you can agree that the opposite is true. It doesn’t feel good to give up control of anything at first… but then… peace sets in.
That’s because control is something we are never meant to have.
That peace? That’s truth. That’s love. That’s Jesus.
The creator of all things, is in all things created.
What if we didn’t just give up control, but we gave it to the very thing that created us?
Crazy, right?
“But I said to you, ‘Don’t be shocked or afraid! The Lord your God is going ahead of you. He will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt. And you saw how the Lord your God cared for you all along the way as you traveled through the wilderness, just as a father cares for his child. Now he has brought you to this place.’
-Deuteronomy 1:29-31
He fights for you, because he created you… and he’s longing for you. You aren’t meant to be best at everything, you aren’t meant to be in control of everything. You’re simply meant to be his.
xo
AnnaFilly
I love this so, so much! 🙂 <3
<3
Amen!
Thank you for writing this! I needed to be reminded of a lot of what you talked about.
You are SO welcome. God is so good. He is always reminding me of that 🙂
I love this. It’s right where I was in 1980 when I gave my life to Jesus. I had a good life but wondered if “that’s all there is”, kind of like the old Peggy Lee song. I just knew there was more, but what was it. Praise God, He led me to Him!
Thank you! I needed to read this, all of it and reminded of His love and promises! : )
So thankful it touched you– LOVE YOU!
“We spend our whole lives clawing to the top of our social ladders, striving to be better. But better than what? Everything?” <—that right there… so much amen! Thank you for keeping it real and for the great reminder that God is in control.
You inspire me, Kathleen. So grateful for you. We gotta keep it real together 😉