By Allen White
For troubles without number surround me; my sins have
overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my
heart fails within me. Psalm
40:12
David epitomizes the mess than we can make of our lives. Sin
and shame leads to more sin and shame, which leads to still more. David felt
like his life was so overwhelmed that his sin outnumbered his success. The
weight of his sin was more than he could bear.
Have you ever made a mess of things? Have you ever caused
trouble? Have you ever had to face the music? Welcome to the human race.
In recovery, we learn to “Consciously choose to commit all
my life and will to Christ’s care and control.” Sin is an oppressive master.
Christ is a caring master. When we give the control of our lives to sin, our
lives spin out of control. When we give control of our lives to Christ, we
experience life and peace. Ours is not a perfect life, but it is far better
than the alternative.
We love Christ’s care. He loves us always, forever and no
matter what. He won’t reject us. God loves us more than any person we will ever
meet. We are all in favor of receiving Christ’s care. But, what about the
control part?
We’ll gladly give our life to Christ’s care, but the second
part is to submit our will to Christ’s control. That’s a whole other deal.
David saw that his control of his own life led to a lack of control. Many of us
have experienced that too. But, this isn’t a one-time, “I surrender all” sort
of deal.
It’s a daily deal. It’s a situation by situation deal. It’s
a decision to follow Christ or follow ourselves. It’s a choice to seek Christ’s
guidance or to think that we know best.
Here’s the deal about being in control: we don’t have that
much control. We can be the healthiest people on the planet and get killed
while exercising. We can be the most careful investor and still suffer
considerable losses. We can be the most giving spouse and still receive divorce
papers. We can be the most devoted parent and still see our children rebel. We
can be the most faithful Christian and still struggle with sin and insecurity.
There is not much that we control.
Control really comes down to just two things: who or what we
rely on to cope and how we direct our attitude. Some people cope by working
more hours, consuming more food, alcohol, drugs or tobacco, having more fun,
starting a new relationship, surfing the channels or the internet, vegging out,
numbing out – any kind of escape. When any of these things becomes what we rely
on for our well-being, it becomes an idol in our lives. The problem is that
none of these things can or will ever satisfy us completely.
If stuff could satisfy us, then we should all be satisfied.
Instead, we feel the need for more stuff. Using these substitutes to cope leads
to a loss of control. It leads to the despair that David refers to in this
psalm.
Giving control to Christ is scary. What if he makes us do
something that we don’t want to do? God will never ask us to do something that
is impossible for Him to do. He does not control our lives like some sort of
deranged dictator. His control comes with His care. Just like you and I want to
direct our children onto the right path because we love them so much, our
Heavenly Father loves us far more than any parent could ever love a child.
What are you trying to control right now? How are you losing
control over that right now? Rather than losing control, I would challenge you
to surrender your control to Christ. Even if you have to surrender 12 times in
a day over the same thing, His control and care won’t steer you wrong.
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