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.
I played softball until I was about 35 years old. Every time I’d step up into the batters box I’d dig my feet in and grip the bat so tight my knuckles would turn white. I’m not sure why I held on so tight…I probably didn’t want to sling the bat across the field when it came time to drop it and run. So I held tight. Like holding onto the bat and digging my feet into the batter’s box, I can hold on to a life issue so tight…trying to control every little detail. It’s exhausting and it’s a lack of faith and trust in God on my part.
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