Control Freak part 1
I've noticed that in this human race of ours, most people feel the need to be in control. Of everything. All the time. As someone who (in the minority) doesn't feel that way, I find it fascinating. It's interesting to me that people find it so hard so often to just live and let live. To accept that things are outside of their control. And, listen, I think it's important to affect what you can affect. Especially in a positive way. If you can make someone smile... do it. Because the world needs more of that. But there's a difference between seeing a need and meeting it and crushing everything around you into the shape that you think it should be in. Think about this: Your idea of what is "right" might be right... for you... but that doesn't mean it's right for everybody. We can have different opinions and different views and we can still get along. And here's the thing about control--whether you realize it or understand it or not... YOU are being controlled. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:13-14 (NLT), "If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God. And if we are in our right minds, it is for your benefit. Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life." I love that phrase, and that idea, "Either way, Christ's love controls us." Whether we're crazy or in our right minds. Whether we know that God loves us, or not. And here's the deal: If you know the love of God, it controls you in the sense that you will use that love to love others. If you don't know the love of God, it controls you in the sense that you will do anything you can to get what you think you don't have. People need love. That's just how--and who--we are. Look at Matthew 6:24 (NLT), "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate the one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money." You can't serve TWO masters... but you WILL serve one. Luckily for us, we get to choose our master. We can either cling to the false sense of control that we think we have when we do things our own way... or we can let go and let God. We can choose to serve love. Choose to know and believe that we are loved, and in that way experience the love we have been given by giving it away. Let me say it like this: "Tha's why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God. But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)" (Romans 8:8-9, NLT). Control. Are you controlled by your sinful nature? Which is simply unbelief, or not knowing and believing that God is love and He loves you? Or are you controlled by the Holy Spirit? The Spirit of truth that leads and guides you into all truth. So really, "control" is about faith. The faith in God that comes from hearing the Word (which is Jesus, which is love) of God. Letting Christ's love control you, and in that way obeying the New Commandment for the New Man--loving people as Jesus loves you. Letting the love inside "control" you by letting it come out onto everybody you come into contact with. Be in control by focusing on love. Be in control by not being thrown about by any wind of doctrine, but by standing firm on the Rock on which you have been planted. It's all about love, guys. I've said it many times. When love is in control, things will work out the way they are supposed to. Because love never fails. Because love endures. Let the love inside you come out by knowing and believing it's in there. That's how to serve ONE master... God... and that's how to be in control!