Get Your Hands Off

I have been thinking about posting something about this for a few days.  Are you someone who always has to have control of everything in your life?  If you are, then I am sure that you have grown weary, gotten burned out and found yourself in bad situations at various points in your life!  We are taught to have control and even terms like “self-control” influence us to the point where we may feel that is we “lose control”, it is always a very bad thing.  If you have lived as long as I have and experienced as many different situations, you have most likely found that even though you might like to think that you are always “in control”, in reality, that is certainly NOT the case.  There are things in our lives that are beyond our control.  We can learn to roll with the punches or those things can destroy us.  I would like to think that I have learned to roll with the punches and not lose my peace when things don’t go as I anticipated.

I am always looking for life lessons to be learned in various situations in my life.  I will be honest, it is hard to give up control in some instances and let others have control, especially when we may not see things the same way as they do.  However, there are times when we would be wise to take our hands off and let others lead because, let’s face it, we don’t know everything and there may be others that can handle a situation much better than we can.  I have a friend who knows how to do many practical things like building and fixing things that are far beyond my realm of expertise.  If I tried to do some of the things that my friend does, it would be disastrous!  In situations like those, I will gladly yield control.  Sometimes we need to just get out of the way and yield control!

Let’s look at the subject of control from a spiritual perspective now.  Sometimes we hold on very tightly to the wheel and try to maintain all of the control in our lives.  When we come to the Lord and give ourselves to Him,  sometimes we want to keep holding on to the wheel and let Him ride with us.  I have seen the stickers that say, “God is my Co-pilot” and although it may sound good, it is not the right way to live as Christians.  We must learn to reverse the way that we have thought previously and let Him be in control.  After all, if there is a true EXPERT at everything, it is the Lord!  If we truly let God have control, we will never make a wrong turn.  I was speaking with a friend this morning and he mentioned the story that we call “the prodigal son” which is really a story about a Father’s love for a rebellious son, the Father’s expectancy to see the return of the son and the joy of the Father when the son came home. My friend mentioned that the son did not just end up in the place he did before he returned home but he chose to go there.  That fits into this blog about control because the son wanted to control his own life and destiny.  He thought he knew better than his father.  How many times do we do this?  Our flesh and OUR way of thinking goes contrary to the Lord and we take the wheel and steer off in a totally wrong direction.  When we realize that we are not where we thought we would be, then we decide to return to our Father because it is much better to trust that He knows best for our lives. As Christians, God wants priority and preeminence in our lives.  If we want control, He will let us leave and go do our own thing.  However, we have the keen ability to make a great mess out of our lives!

There is a scripture that tells us to “pray without ceasing” (I Thessalonians 5:17).  I think many people do not understand this verse because they think it would be impossible to pray without ceasing.  I believe that verse means that we always need to be in an attitude of prayer  where we have the kind of relationship with the Lord that we are always aware of His presence and can call upon Him at any time for direction in our lives.  If we are hard-headed and want our own way, we can certainly take the wheel and go off on our own. In a scriptural and spiritual sense,  we need to learn to crucify our fleshly desires and carnal thoughts, take our hands OFF of the wheel and let God have control!

Patricia Styers

Author: giventhanksministry

My desire is to serve the Lord and people and to show them the great love that the Lord has for them. I want to be able to encourage others to know, love, and serve the Lord. View all posts by giventhanksministry