Wednesday in the Word: Control

Have you ever felt out of control in your life? Do you feel like things are slipping away and there is no way you can bring it back together? Are you a control freak? I know I am. Sadly. It is honestly such a pain. I worry about everything and everything I do (or other people do) has to be done perfectly and to the way I like it. I worry about my future, what I'm doing to do when I graduate, who I'm going to marry, how I'm going to pay for anything. I even worry about things in the immediate future, like my grades and when I can clean my apartment next.

Honestly, it is the most exhausting way to live. To constantly have to be in the know and in control of what is happening in your life is exhausting. It isn't the way God made us to be. I'm the kind of girl who planned every single class she would take in college her freshman year. I have a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C for almost everything. That is just who I am, and while I know God didn't make us to worry all the days of our lives, sometimes I just need a reminder.

This is me, reminding you, and myself, that God is in control. In Matthew 19, Jesus is confronted by a man who believes he has done everything right. He has been in complete control of his life, for his entire life. He has kept all the commandments and wants to know how to gain eternal life. However, Jesus realized that the man still had one thing that was controlling his life, one thing he had yet to give up. His wealth. Sadly, the man could not give that up and turned away from Jesus.

Of course the disciples were confused as the man appeared to be near to perfect, in total control. They asked who then could be saved if not even this man. Jesus had the perfect answer, as always.

"Jesus looked at them and said, 'with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible'."

Whoah. With that one phrase Jesus tells them that it is not in man's control to save himself, it is with God. The man could not give up the control money had over his life, thus he could not give in to God's control. In my opinion, this verse is such a freeing statement. Every time I read it, it's like a load is lifted from my shoulders. When I want everything to be in order and just right, and when I have to know my plans for the next five years, I think of this verse. It doesn't matter what I do to gain control of my life when ultimately my life belongs to God, and with God all things are possible. My striving to have control of my life will not save me, only God can do that. So let's all just take a deep breath and know that God is in control and we don't have to be.