Friday, April 29, 2011

Control Freaks

     This semester I have let myself get out of shape and Thursday my kind boss didn't help matters by buying the office pizza for lunch. So I decided I was going to start running again, so later that day I went for a run. The first mile everything was good I was breathing a little heavy but that was to be expected. As I passed a mile and a half I started thinking maybe this isn't such a good idea but I was halfway done so I kept on running. At two miles someone stopped me and asked if I needed an oxygen tank and a wheelchair and I ended by walking the last half mile back to my apartment feeling defeated and dejected about not being able to finish the run. 
    
     So often this is how Christians live their lives. We realize that we have been living in sin and decide that we need to change. So we start off on our journey back to Christ, but instead of giving control of our lives back to Christ we decide that we can make it back on our own. At first it appears that our way is working and we weren't expecting it to be easy so at the first sign of trouble we keep on doing things our way. Soon it appears to us that we have come a long way  from where we were, but at the same time Christ still seems so far away. This is where a lot of times we get into trouble; we don't know which way to go and oftentimes we end up going back to what is familiar, are sinful ways. So now we're stumbling and gasping for air, but we still haven't allowed the One who could carry us the rest of the way to take control. 
    
     This is something that for most of life (and even now occasionally) that I struggled with. I felt like I could control my own life and I really didn't want to give anyone else control. However, during my first semester of college my life began to fall apart; I lost all desire for engineering, which is what I have wanted to do my whole life, I was struggling in most of my classes, which had never happened before, and the thing that was worst to me was that I could feel myself losing control and I hated it. Early this semester, while trying to figure out what I was supposed to do with my life, I looked back on my life and realized what a mess I had made trying to do things my way, so I decided that I would give God full control of my life, not just parts of it but all of it. Has everything been perfect since? no, but a few days later I realized God was calling me to full time missions, giving me a purpose again, and I finally understood the phrase "a peace that surpasses understanding," when you give control to God you no longer have to worry, because you have the God that created and controls the universe leading your life. I leave you with a challenge: spend time in prayer repenting of any sins and getting your heart and mind purified before the Lord, then surrender your entire life to God's control. This is a lengthy passage but I encourage to read all of it since we so often take parts of it our of context; Luke 12:22-32 says,

 "22And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on. 23For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. 24Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! 25And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 26If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? 27Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 28But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! 29And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. 30For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.31Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you.
 32 "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 33Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. 34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also"


If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ please scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find out how to begin a relationship with Jesus Christ.

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