Imagine yourself in a car. You are allowed to steer from the passenger side. The driver is constantly giving you directions. Some of their instructions, you listen to, most you ignore. Many times along this drive, you swerve off the road, venture into oncoming traffic, and even crash. You even go as far as to ask the driver to take the wheel. After he takes the wheel, you try and wrestle it back from him. He is more than willing to give the wheel back to you. Even though the ride is so much smoother when the one in the driver's seat is in control, you constantly take it back and try to do it yourself.
As you have probably figured out, this is the parable of the foolish driver. I cannot tell you about how many times we try and wrestle control our lives from the position of least control. You cannot successfully navigate a car to where it needs to go from the passenger seat. Likewise, you cannot navigate your life properly unless you have access to all of the controls. I dont know about you but I cannot press the accelerator from the passenger seat without repeated trips to the chiropractor.
Isaiah 42:16 "I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, And crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them." This is a promise direct from the will of Almighty God. You cannot successfully navigate your life without His guidance, not and it lead to be best kind of life. You might as well be a blind man trying to walk through a dark room with stuff all over the floor. Our vision is so short sighted in the span of time that we have, that we are as blind men when compared to Him. All I'm trying to say is that YOU NEED HIM!
What happens when somebody pulls out in front of you? We try to get back at them. You are gonna ram them off the road, right? WRONG. Let Him handle it, or follow His instructions on the best way to handle it. Don't handle it on your own. People are going to make you mad, treat you like crap, insult you, etc. The best thing that you can do is LET IT GO! Let go of your offense, your pride, and respond out of love and not anger.
Think about temperatures in your house. There are two things associated with the air conditioning system. One is a thermometer, the other is the thermostat. The thermometer reacts to the temperature, the higher the temperature, the more red it gets. A thermostat actually takes steps to control the temperature of the surrounding area. To put it simply, be a thermostat and not a thermometer.
"What happens when I let it go?" The difference in the driver in our story and Jesus as the driver is that Jesus can actually control what goes on around you. There are so many things that we try and avoid, control and do away with that are actually put there to make us better people. God Almighty is never going to let you go through more than you can handle. If anybody is a living testimony to that, I am. I have not had the worst life ever, but there were times that it really sucked! I am a better person for it. I tried to hold onto hate, anger, resentment, grudges, and past hurt until I began a journey of letting Jesus have more and more control over what I do. After a certain amount of time, Jesus got up in my business and asked why I had been holding to all that.
The revelation of the cross is what finally released my grip on all of it as well as the direction my life was headed. Not only did my mistakes put Him up there on that old rugged cross, but those people that hurt me put Him up there too. He died for them too. He forgave the people that tortured and killed Him. What right did I have to hold anything against anybody? Why was I holding onto it? I mean, let's be real here for a second. If Jesus is standing in physical form in front of you, He's asking you why you are holding onto your hurt. Can you imagine Him saying something like, "Really? Is that all you got?" I am not trying to take anything away from the pain that you feel. I know that some people have been truly wounded throughout their lives.
What are you holding onto today? I can promise you that when you really let it go and give Jesus control of your wheel, you will feel freedom that you have never known before. We live in a fallen world and will mess up from time to time, but He is big enough to handle that. He loved us enough that He gave up His life for many reasons: so that we could have a relationship with the Father without condemnation, we wouldn't go to hell (the lightest point if you ask me), so that we could have the best kind of life, and that we could spread kindness, healing, and generosity through the rest of the world.
Give up whatever it is you are holding onto. If you have to, use symbolism. Take rocks, write whatever it is on that rock and chunk it into a river. You can't go and get it in a river that's 30 feet deep without scuba gear. If you have to go that far, you really havent let it go anyway. God has the best kind of life spelled out for us in His word. You can sum it all up in this statement: "Love God with EVERYTHING you have, and love other people as much if not more than you love yourself. " To put it simply LET IT GO!!!
Grace and peace be with you Always!
No comments:
Post a Comment