January 21, 2022

                               Surrender

 

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD. – Jeremiah 17:7

 

Worries abound. Health issues. Financial issues. Relationship issues. It’s like there is always something that threatens to steal our peace and drive us to the brink of anxiety.

 

We live in an uncertain world. Just when we think Covid is about to end, another variant emerges and here we go again. Have you lost someone you cared about to Covid? I have. Many times over. Age doesn’t seem to matter. Covid doesn’t just hit the old and ill. It takes the young and healthy.

 

Prices on everything are skyrocketing. Food and gasoline and everything else are much higher now. But paychecks haven’t increased to cover those extra costs. Jobs are everywhere. Despite ugly comments about people too lazy to work and government handouts, unemployment is low. There simply aren’t enough people to fill vacancies, especially when those vacancies are for low pay.

 

Relationships are stressed by all the demands of this new life we didn’t want. Kids are in school one day and virtual the next. Parents are juggling jobs and schoolwork and childcare. Older folks are isolated from their peers and, in some cases, their families. We are all struggling in what appears to be an unending path to destruction.

 

How do we survive? God. We’re trying to manage things we were never meant to manage. We’re trying to control things we can’t control. We are allowing life to bring us to the breaking point without realizing God is the only One who is steadfast and true. He is the only anchor in this thing we call life.

 

What would happen if you simply surrendered it all to God? What would it feel like to hand it all over to the One who loves you most, the One who knows the answers, the One who can protect you from all harm?

 

We don’t have to do life on our own. We really don’t have to know all the answers. We can simply trust God and KNOW that He is in control and that we can find rest in the shelter of His arms

Saturday, April 14, 2012

God’s Got It Under Control

Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall. -- Psalm 55:22

Some days just seem so overwhelming. Everybody wants something. Nobody is satisfied. Financial pressures pound you. What can go wrong does. Need I go on?

Most of life is just stuff that keeps happening. We know that. The laundry never gets completely done because by the time we finish something else is dirty. Same with grocery shopping. It’s one of those tasks that never ends.

Other things aren’t so easy to brush aside. A lingering illness. Financial stress. Job insecurity. Marital discord. Family feuds. These sorts of things rock our very foundation -- unless we are firmly grounded in our LORD.

A dear friend turned down a new job just two months ago because it would have meant a serious pay cut. Now she’s found out she could lose her job to staff cutbacks in May. She’s scared and kicking herself for not taking the other job.

Another woman can give a detailed list of all the jobs she’s applied for. She’s still looking. Her finances are dwindling lower and lower and she’s about to give up hope.

A man struggles with depression as his health fails. He wonders why God brought him this far only to abandon him to an incurable cancer. His wife has gone home and his daughters live far away. He feels so alone.

Sometimes I try to joke that if stress kills, then I’m already dead. Except it isn’t funny. Stress is real and can seem to control us unless we turn it over to God. That sounds a lot easier than it is.

We are taught to take control of our own lives. Except many of us feel we have no control over our days. We are told to toughen up and just deal with whatever is happening. But the endless days make the tough façade harder and harder to hold up.

The good news is that God hears our silent cries. He holds out His arms to life us up and hold us tight. And we can learn to give our cares, our worries, our concerns to Him. One day at a time. Sometimes one moment at a time. Refusing to allow Satan to control our minds.

So tell God you want Him to take over. Give Him everything that seems impossible to fix, to deal with, to accept. Let Him take care of it. God loves you so much. And He is all powerful. Never compare what you can do to what God can do because He can do anything. So relax. God’s got it all under control.