Every day you have to decide who is in control of your life… God or you.
It sounds like a simple question. The answer is only one of two choices… Option A or Option B, but every day each of us wrestles with this one simple decision. Each day we either ask God to be our star player or put Him on the bench.
Why do we do this?
As the pastor Max Lucado writes, “We humans want to do things our way. Forget the easy way. Forget the common way. Forget the best way. Forget God’s way. We want to do things our way.”
Society champions this idea. We have books that tell us how to, and why we should do things all by ourselves. Commercials on T.V. and products at the store advertise ways and devices that allow us to do it our way easier and faster. We have counselors and psychiatrists that tell us how we can shoulder and carry our own burdens. We seek out avenues and systems that support the theory that we are the controllers of the universe, and yet, we find that our “control” is a poor substitute for God’s control.
We’re anxious, stressed, worried and as our heavy burdens rise up and rear their ugly heads, we suddenly look to the bench and say, “Hey you, GOD, you can jump in any time now.” We want to do it our way until we can’t anymore. When the self-reliance is too unbearable to manage, we find ourselves on our knees ready to give it back to God again.
So, how do you give it to God and know that He will take control? Everyone has heard the first part of the Serenity Prayer, but not everyone knows the final part of the prayer:
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time;
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
forever in the next.
Amen.
Next time you’re trying to bench God, say this prayer and allow him to take over. Give it all over to him and learn to experience true serenity.
