Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash
Giving God control. That’s difficult, is it? This is one of the major struggle we have. That why it’s one of Keturah’s major struggles (The main character in my book Under Penalty of Death. Guess who I model her after… ME!)
It’s one of my primary struggles. I think it’s a fundamental struggle of humanity.
We want to take command and make sure it gets done and done right! This is understandable. When we leave things up to someone else, we often have to keep after them to get it done, or do it over the right way if they do complete it.
A prime example of this is teaching kid to do the dishes. It’s an important job. It needs to get done so the house will look organized and ready for that surprise guest. But it’s also unhealthy to have dirty dishes lying around. They have to be cleaned. Deep cleaned. Getting the surface to look polished and nice won’t protect us from the hidden germs.
I don’t know how many times I got impatient with my kids while they were growing up, and took over the job because they were going to slow or had too many “missed” spots. It wasn’t the standard, but there were time I took on a job I didn’t have to do, because they weren’t doing it right. If I would have waited and let them finish at their own pace and taught them how to clean well, I would have had less work and the job would have gotten done.
That’s us with God, at times. We don’t see what He’s doing, so we take back control and do it ourselves.
Why do we do it? Why do we keep taking control back when we know He is God and in He has everything planned?
I think there are a couple of main reason.
- We may not realize we’re taking back control.
It’s a thin line between doing our job and taking His. We can’t just sit back and not do our part.
For example, I’m selling my book. I need to get out there and let people know it’s there. I have to market. I need to take time and learn what I need to do, what works and what doesn’t. But afterwards, I need to trust God for the results. This isn’t easy. I want to do more. I want to push until my book shows up as the best. I want to post everywhere… every day. Logically, I know a person needs to see a post three times before it registers and five to seven before they take action. But I can’t do that. A positive turns to a negative if I start spaming. Sorry, I don’t mean to use my book as an example, but it’s fresh on my mind now. I have to be so careful to keep giving that control back to God. It’s not a onetime exercise, it’s a daily, minute by minute pursuit. - We don’t fully trust
The second reason is… it’s simply hard to trust God. Yes, I know, that’s not something that a true, mature, faith-filled Christian should be saying… right?
Wrong. That’s exactly what we are and what we should admit to being. God knows this about us. He made us. This is part of our nature after the fall, and it should be no surprise to us or other church members.
We cannot see God. We can’t hear, touch, or smell Him. Yes, trust is sometimes almost impossible.
How do we get more faith and trust in God to complete what He started?
Read – His word. (PS 119:105)
Pray – admit to God our weakness. (Mark 9: 23-25)
Be Transparent – One of our problems is we what to be strong for other. Or do we really want to be like Moses and hide God’s fading glory behind a veil? (2 Cor 3:13) If we aren’t leaning on God, we are leaning on ourselves and taking control away from God to do it ourselves.
It will become more natural as we practice the above steps. God will complete us in Himself, but we have to come to him, Read his word, Pray and find someone to be transparent with. Sin wants to hide. We can’t let it and still grow in Him.
Warning: DO NOT go out and tell everyone in the name of transparency. But find someone you can talk and pray with.
Then, take those baby steps for faith. Keep giving control to God every minute of every day. You will fail, but you will grow and soon be giving more and more of the control to The One who really IS in control.
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