The Impossibility of Control

I haven’t written here in a while, and a lot of that comes down to control.

I sometimes struggle with going about everyday and/or routine things due to something going wrong. When I say “something,” I really mean “anything.” So, when anything goes wrong, all seems wrong.

How stupid, am I right?

All I want is control. Simple request, isn’t it?

Why do I internally freak out about all the responsibilities that I have? Why do I not know how to handle my own emotions when something seems to go off track? Why do I naturally turn inward and try to solve all of the issues on my own?

My sinful heart is naturally bent towards trying to solve, plan, and figure out how to best control everything. Which is why it is so hard to think about my conversion without feeling convicted of why I still struggle with control.

God saved me on February 23, 2009. There was so much confusion, so much lostness, so much out of my control. The best way I can explain it is that it felt like I was in a fog with a never ending search for a way out.

Then in a moment of clarity, all I could see was this simple fact: I had no control.

My life was out of control and I could not find a way to solve it, plan it, or figure it out. The only option that was clear was that I had to trust that God was in control. Jesus’s death made even perfect sense to me in that moment - He died for me, the man without hope to save himself, so that I would live for Him, the One in control of all things.

Jesus’s death was not an accident or something that was out of the Father’s control. His death was a part of the plan - it was THE plan. His overwhelming and holy love was for people who rejected him and sought so hard to save themselves. His died to kill death, sin, and Satan and to free His chosen children from their slavery of trying to control everything. He was, is, and will forever be in control of all things - even us.

I can write this now with a sense of relief, but I know that my heart is prone to wander away from the Truth. I know that the Holy Spirit is the power to overcome these desires, so all I can do is depend on Him to strengthen me to persevere and kill my desire for control.

God’s plan is not thwarted. Jesus reigns.

God is good and gracious.

JLG

#PraiseHim - Risen From The Dust (Psalm 113:7-9)

Risen From The Dust

Psalm 113: 7-9

He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap,

to make them sit with princes,

with the princes of his people.

He gives the barren woman a home,

making her the joyous mother of children.

Praise the Lord!

God chooses the poor and weak to show His glory to the world.

In the last post of the #PraiseHim series, we come to a text that gives us a glimpse into God's grace. We clearly see that God has compassion on those who are the rejects of the world. He cares deeply for His children and will raise them out of their poverty to a life of reconciliation and redemption with Himself.

I struggle to write anything on this topic because I tend to think of poverty as solely a label for people who have little in their bank account. I tend to think of most of my life because most of my life has been spent with little to no money in my bank account. What I fail to think about is that this passage is about more than fiscal earning.

This passage focuses on how God chooses us and gives us life. Without God's intervention in our lives we are spiritually poor (Romans 3:23) and spiritually dead in our sin (Ephesians 2:1). We have all sinned and openly rebelled against God and His ways, which makes us poor in the eyes of our Creator.

God's grace is the only way that someone may be reconciled to God because we can not earn our way back to a right relationship with Him. We simply can not do it. We try all the time to prove our worth, our value, and our strength to others, but God sees us for who we truly are. God knows our sin. He knows our filth. He knows that we publicly and privately rebell against Him.

God "raises the poor from the dust... to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people." God does this to show His glory and to display that He is the only one who can truly redeem the relationship. The imagery of bringing the poor to sit with princes shows us that God sees our sin, cleanses us through the blood of Jesus, and makes us a "royal priesthood a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (1 Peter 2:9).

The last verse of Psalm 113 says that God gives the woman who can't have children a home and a family. Historically speaking, women who could not have children were seen as outcasts. They remained unmarried or they were treated very harshly by the community as a whole.

Did God treat women like that? No way! He says that He gives them a home and a family! God provides protection and a community of support. God provides and fulfills our deepest needs and desires.

We often think that we are the ones who make our own way, and we often slip into thinking that if we work hard enough that we will be filled with joy. The only way that this will happen is if we turn to Jesus, confess our sins, trust in His life, death, and resurrection to be an efficient and sufficient substitute for our great poverty. God is the one who provides us with what we really need - HIM.

We need Jesus. We need Him to bring us out of the dust and reconcile us to Himself. We need Him to fully fulfill our desires and our longings. Nothing else will satisfy our thirst.

We need to be redeemed by Jesus.

If you have trusted in Jesus you are adopted into His family and your deepest thirst will be satisfied at the cross of Christ. His sovereign choice of adoption redeems our lives to be one of joy and perfect fulfillment in Jesus.

God is good and gracious.

Jacob Luis Gonzales