Controlling our Hope (Part 2 of 2)

I can’t control the weather.

I can’t control who lives.

I can’t control my kids.

I can’t control my wife.

I can’t control what people think of me.

I can’t control what is demanded of me.

I can’t control when unexpected costs come.

I can’t control if I get a disease or major health problem.

I can’t control if I get hit by a car.

I can’t control if my “stuff” works how it’s supposed to.

I can’t control my kid’s health and safety.

I can’t control my brain to function as it should.

I can’t control politics.

I can’t control who wins the Super Bowl.

I can’t control.

I can’t control.

I can’t control.

Thinking about life makes me realize how little is up to me and how much is out of my hands.  Why then, do I spend so much physical and emotional energy trying to control what I can’t…all the while neglecting the very things I can control.

By God’s grace and through the power of the Spirit, I can control my obedience to Him.  

I can be faithful by saturating myself in God’s word, whether I feel like it or not. 

I can be faithful by loving my wife, despite how she responds. 

Loving and disciplining my kids, whether it is easy or exhausting. 

Sharing my faith, whether people respond or not.    

Sometimes faith seems complicated, but I think that is because our hope is in so many different things and we try to control all those things.  Maybe faith is simple.  Our duty is to obey God and keep his commands (Eccl 12:13).  It is that simple.  What makes it complicated is not what is asked of us, but that our desires are not where they should be.  It gets complicated because our sinful hearts pull us in so many directions, and in that we try to control much of life around us.  Maybe it is time to stop trying to control so many things.  Time to stop being anxious and worried over things we can’t control.  Time we just look at what God has called us to be obedient to, and do it.  Time we trust God for all that other stuff, and focus our energy where it should be focused.  After all, trying to control these things instead of trusting God accomplishes nothing except revealing our hope is in something other than God Himself.