Give God Control

“We do not know the play. We do not even know whether we are in Act I or Act V. We do not know who are the major and who the minor characters are. The Author knows. ― C.S. Lewis, The World’s Last Night: And Other Essays. 

If we were honest with ourselves, most of us would admit that we think we are captains of our fate and masters of our destiny. We do what we can to control our circumstances, sometimes thinking about the fact that God ordains whatsoever comes to pass:“Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.” (Ephesians 1:11).  

The fact of the matter is God is in control. It sounds like a pretty simple and obvious statement as most of us have prayed for God to take control of various aspects and situations in our lives. The trouble is too often we attempt to veto his decisions when He does something that we don’t like; especially when it involves something we want. We want to be happy, to be successful, to find our soulmate, to raise wonderful children. There are certainly additional things we want and we don’t want God to say no to something we want. That line of reasoning doesn’t make a lot of sense, but either does wrestling with God in an effort to take control of our lives. After all, it would not seem very wise to have a power struggle with the omnipotent, omnipresent, almighty God of the universe. The simple fact is God is not going to arrange our lives according to our exact specifications, 

The bottom line is when we are in control God isn’t. It is that simple.  So we need to decide every day who’s going to be in control of our life — us or God. Letting go and letting God take control is not difficult when we understand the character of God.  If we truly believed that God was good, and believed from the bottom of our hearts that the character of God was selfless and had our best interests, why would we not be giving up control to Him all the time? And why wouldn’t we be letting go and letting God take control if we actually, truly knew and believed in who He said He was?

As Christians, we have a hope that even when God doesn’t give us what we want, He is giving us what we need. That can be a difficult thing to accept, especially in the midst of heartbreak, trauma, and trials. But it is true. God creates beauty from ashes and He can use all things for His good.

God is in control. He has a plan for your life. And if we can keep ourselves from interfering long enough, He will bring that plan to pass.

Discussion Questions:

1. How does fear of the future and wanting to be in control relate?
2. What area of your life do you find yourself consistently fearful of what might come or what won’t come? Why do you think it’s hard to let go of control and trust God for your future?