Control Freak part 5
Let go and let God. That's literally the best advice I can give. "Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you" (1 Peter 5:7, NLT). Trust in the Lord and the power of HIS might. Stop trying to control everything. Because you can't. Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Which means--with the Holy Spirit's help--you can control yourself. You can bring every thought under captivity to the obedience of Christ. You can react in a suitable and appropriate manner. Which means, think about love, and react with love. What you feed is what will grow. What you magnify in your life is what will manifest in your life. Look at Psalm 37:5 (NLT), "Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you." Obedience is a trust issue. If you believe your heavenly Father has your best interests at heart, and if you believe that He knows the end from the beginning, then you won't have any trouble doing what He says. Which, again, is love. Rest is not inactivity, it is Holy Spirit directed activity. And the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of love--can only and will only ever direct you to do one thing: Love! Either way, Christ's love controls us. Either we don't know (and believe) that we are loved, and we do everything we do in order to get what we think we don't have... or we do know (and believe) that we are loved and we do everything we do in order to share that amazing love! I'm telling you, love is too good to keep to yourself. It is what everybody needs. When you know (and believe) that you have it... you can't help but share it. What's inside--what you believe is inside, that's where faith comes in, and faith is incredibly important--will come out. If you're filled with worry and anxiety and hurt and bitterness... there isn't a lot of room for anything else. But the same goes for love. When you're filled with mercy and grace and forgiveness and love there isn't room for anything else! God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Jesus is the light of the world. WE are the light of the world! In Him... in us... there is no darkness at all! But seeing is believing. If you're running around like the proverbial chicken with its head cut off, looking for love in all the wrong places, then you aren't experiencing the gift you've been given. Which is the gift of God. Which is love! So what I'm saying is... give up the reins. Let Jesus take the wheel. Stop trying to even follow in His foot steps. Let Him make His own foot steps in your feet. Be still and know that HE is God. Be still and know that God is love. And then... take the ball and run with it. Self-control, to me, is about NOT trying to control everything, AND about controlling yourself. Being who you really are (which is who you are in Christ, which is who Christ is in you) by letting your light shine. By letting the love inside come out, by knowing and believing it's in there. So don't freak out. Give your worries and cares to God. Trust Him. He cares about you. He's got your back. He wants what's best for you... and He KNOWS what's best for you. So just let go. Let things be what they are. Let PEOPLE be who they are--even when they don't know who they are. Beating them over the head isn't going to turn the lightbult on. Shining your light of love might. And even if it doesn't, some plant... some water... but it is God who gets the harvest. So don't worry about it. It's not your job to change people or fix people. It's your job to love people. Period. It's your job to be who YOU were created to be. It's your job to receive and release the love of God! That's really all you can control. So focus on that, and focus on love!