Sunday, June 11, 2006
From LIFETEEN.ORG:"If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?" - Luke 12:26
Situation Explained
Do you have control of your life?
Solution Offered
It's amazing how many controls we have in our lives and in out modern culture.
God will bless you out of control:
We have controls for everything from the garage door to the television, the stereo to the sprinkler system, the ceiling fan to the coffee maker. You want to control the universe and save the planet? No problem, all you need is your game controller and favorite gaming system. You need to crank up the home oven to start making dinner earlier in the evening? No problem, you can even do it from your mobile phone while stuck in traffic. You looking for a solution to avoid traffic? Your car will navigate you around it. You trying to bet money online as to who the next Pope will be (ya', that was actually happening last year)? All you need is your palm pilot. You want to check the score of a small Division III college's badminton team from the deck of a sailboat in the Caribbean? Praise God that you have that internet cell phone, huh?
Technology brings the world together and puts everything at your fingertips. At the push of a button you can control just about anything (or sometimes, anyone) if you have enough time, software or bandwidth and, of course, money.
That being said, what does a "control-happy" existence really bring us?
Do we save that much time? Not really, we usually just spend the time saved on even more projects... ironically, we usually end up even busier
Do we enjoy life more? Not usually. Often times we don't just enjoy the technology we have, we must have the newest, latest, smallest, fastest, coolest and sleekest design on the market. Newer means more money, more money means more work.
Do we save energy? Perhaps. Using a remote control from the sofa might keep us from having to walk across the room (perish the thought) which is nice, but is a little exercise gonna kill us? Ironically enough, yes... little (or no) exercise will probably kill us. It's good to get off the couch and exercise our bodies. Maybe at some point we even turn off the television completely and open one of those book things.
Controllers do just that, they offer us control, but the Gospel does not offer us control, it offers us surrender. God calls us to surrender. Jesus Christ models perfect surrender. The Holy Spirit allows you to surrender.
If you (or I) seek to control, we will turn into control freaks, in fact, many of us already are control freaks. If we seek surrender, however, we will "take control" of our lives and of eternity by offering those lives back to the One Who is eternity.
Honestly, God loves you so much that He is going to put you in a position to lose control. Put simply, God will bless you out of control.
WHY would He do such a thing?
Because if the only way to save you from yourself is to grab control back from you for a short time, that's what He's gonna do. As He proved on the cross, He is willing to go to the furthest extent possible to save you. He is willing to do whatever it takes to show you and I what it means to truly surrender, in love, to God.
And thank God He did.
The next time you reach for that remote, remember that God is closer to you than you are to that t.v... far closer.
Salvation Given
"If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?" - Luke 12:26
Control leads to boredom, but surrender...surrender leads to life.
SOURCE
2:42:00 PM