Control Freak part 3
I'm so live and let live that sometimes it's hard for me to even understand the lure of being in control. I feel like it's way to stressful to freak out when things aren't going exactly the way you think they should. It's exhausting. Especially when you understand that it's not your job to make things go any certain way at all. It's your job to love people. Period. That's what I've been trying to really hit on in this Rant series: Love is what matters... and you don't control love, love controls you. If you are doing things from the heart, you are doing them because of love. Look at Philippians 2:13 (NLT), "For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him." It all comes from the heart. Both the want to, and the ability to. Love is our strength. I know sometimes it is looked at as a weakness. Being vulnerable. Opening yourself to people. But--while that CAN put you in a position to get hurt... it can also put you in a position to fully experience everything you were created for. You were made to love. Made by love. And it is love (God) working in you. Listen: Your behavior flows from your belief. You don't do in order to be. You do because you be. When you know and believe the love of God, you have the desire and the ability to share what you've got. You can fill yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. You can let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. That's how you "control" your life. You make sure that you are focused on what really matters. That love is not only your goal, but it is your reality. We spend--waste--so much of our time, talent, and treasure looking for love in all the wrong places. Look inside! It's in there! We already have it! God (love) isn't going to work in us someday. God (love) is working in us right now! To will and to do of His good pleasure. To bring out of us what He has put in us. And when you know and believe that it's in there--when you bring all your thoughts under captivity to the obedience of Christ, by simply knowing and believing the ultimate truth of the universe that God is love and He loves you--that's when it comes out naturally. You don't have to force it out. You don't have to fake it 'til you make it. You can simply let what's inside come out. Let it flow. Do what you do from a posture of rest. Focus on God's love for you, and then love Him back by loving the people you come into contact with. That's the key to this whole thing: Receiving and releasing the love of God. Receiving it BY releasing it. Releasing it by receiving it. One more time: Filling yourself to overflowing with what God has already filled you with. You can't control much in this life, but you can control... you. Self-control, believe it or not, is a fruit of the Spirit. My uncle once said, "Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you react to it." You can't control what happens to you. Life happens. Every single day. All you can really control is whether or not you meet those challenges with love. And when you inject love into a situation, that situation WILL work out the way it's supposed to. Not necessarily the way you think it should, but certainly the way God knows it should. So give up the reins. Give up that false sense of control. Stop trying to hammer the world into your idea of what it should be. Let it be what it is, and find the good in it. Find the love. Find the silver lining in every cloud. And if you can't find that love... create it. Let it out from deep inside. You have love because you are loved. You CAN love because you have love. Breathe it in and breathe it out. Live from the inside out. From the heart!