You Are Not in Control.

Ugh, control. The need to control my surroundings. The need to control my job. The need to control my kids, my relationships, and my future. This was soooooooo me! I spent much of my life trying to control everything around me. There must be order and 90-degree angles and organization, and timelines. It was exhausting.

Hey, I still believe in order and writing things down to make them plain. God is a god of order. But the control I experience was about the pain I endured, the abuse, the disappointment, the trauma & loss. I needed to control things around me because the inner turmoil was so great.

But our God wants an expansive, abundant life for us. He doesn't want us bound by a small, fenced-in life. His Son paid for freedom so that we may be set completely free from bondage, including the bondage of control and perfectionism. He wants us to live and walk in the freedom that is found only in Him. He wants us to enjoy the seasons of our life, whether expected or not, whether hard or easy. He wants to give us peace, even when life's storms are tumultuous. The need for control keeps us bound and our lives small. Let’s look at a few things that are keeping us from living freely…

1. Our mouth. Yep, that's right. The Bible teaches us that blessings and curses, life and death, are flowing from our tongues, and yet, we wield words that often keep us bound. We generally want to talk all about the big ol' mountains in our lives rather than the big God we have to move them. We want to whine about the challenges and how much bigger they seem than everyone else's. It seems that sometimes we'd rather commit verbal suicide every day rather than speak life to move our mountains! Learn to control your mouth instead of your surroundings! Our voice, when in alignment with the word of God, will slay giants. We won’t feel the need to control others when we are surrendered in trust to the Lord. But we must guard our mouths so that they stay in alignment with God’s word and instruction. Freedom comes through surrender to the Lord.
2. Our past. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that we became a new creation when we accepted Christ as our Savior. And we know that Scripture promises us that Jesus is faithful to forgive us of our sins and spread them as far as the East is to the West when we simply ask. It's done. We're forgiven. But why do we struggle to forgive ourselves and move past our pasts? If not careful, we can find ourselves looking back to the past life the Lord set us free from. The past shame. The past hurt. The past relationship. The past disappointment or soul wound, rather than walking in the freedom of my new life. Our inability to walk into freedom from our pasts will leave us desiring to control everything around us. We must choose to step into this new life Christ paid for.
3. Our choice. Now, this is a hard pill to swallow. What do you mean by our choice? Too often, we choose bondage. We don’t do so consciously, but we do. The Lord recognized this tendency in His people. Listen to what He did in Exodus 13:17-18 to prevent them from choosing bondage. "When Pharaoh finally let the people go, God did not lead them along the main road that runs through Philistine territory, even though that was the shortest route to the Promised Land. God said, 'If the people are faced with a battle, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.' So, God led them in a roundabout way through the wilderness toward the Red Sea." The Israelites had been begging for freedom from slavery for years, and God delivered them miraculously from the Egyptians’ hands in a way that only he could have. Yet, He fully recognized that if they faced a battle, a challenge, a major life obstacle, they may very well choose to go right back to the bondage that God had just set them free from. Have you recently felt like you wandering in the wilderness? What danger might God be protecting you from?

God’s portion given for His daughters is not one of anxiety, perfectionism, confusion, or comparison. Instead, it is to walk in complete freedom with Christ and know the joy of the Lord. May the peace of the Lord fall upon you today. You will be set free by the blood of Christ so that you may experience that wholeness and peace.

Points to Ponder:

• Which of the three areas mentioned – our mouths, pasts, or choices - do you struggle with the most? Why do you think that is so?