Leviticus 20:7-8 (MSG) Set yourselves apart for a holy life. Live a holy life, because I am God, your God. Do what I tell you; live the way I tell you. I am the God who makes you holy.

Have you ever had one of those days when you forgot who is REALLY in control? I sure have. Today, I believe God wants me to understand that HE is God and I am not. Should be a simple truth right… so why can’t I get that through my THICK head sometimes? Truth moment here: Sometimes I have a tendency to “control” things that are completely and totally out of my control. It’s just like grabbing a shopping cart at a grocery store and “steering” it up and down desired isles, I grab a “shopping cart” in my life and won’t let go. I try so hard to “steer” things the way I want them to go. By trying to control the “cart” (outcomes of circumstances that I have no business trying to control in the first place) I fail miserably.

Plain and simple: When I try to “take control”,  things don’t get better…they get worse.

God doesn’t want me calling the shots of my own life. He wants me to live a life of total surrender, holding back NOTHING from Him. He wants it all: my life, my spouse, my child, my finances, my job/vocation, my talents, my time…etc.

I have to unwrap my white-knuckled grip from around the “shopping cart” of my life and let go!

When I surrender fully to Christ and allow him to “steer the shopping cart of my life” amazing things begin to happen. I see Him instead of the circumstance. I feel His peace instead of the chaos that surrounds. I find a deep sense of joy that carries me through the most emotionally gut-wrenching blow. I see abundance in the midst of despair and poverty.

This process of “giving up control” or “total surrender to Christ and his lordship” never ends. When I decide to release control of my life over to Christ, He will show up in ways I would have never dared to dream or imagine.