Breaking The Fear CycleSample

Letting Go of the Control You Never Had

Why is it that we pour our energy into the things that are not in our control and neglect the one thing that is? Our hearts.

God’s Word never offers us control over our families, our circumstances, our lives, or our hours. But he does offer us control over ourselves. We have got to give up the idea of controlling anything else in our lives. Not give it up kind of, sort of, or just for one day. No, we need to give it up entirely. We need to come to the utter end of ourselves and finally submit to the fact that God is better at being in control than we are. 

That’s when God catches us as we collapse into his arms. He is waiting once more to be our Savior. That collapse—at the end, when you acknowledge and accept his control over all things—feels so good. For the first time, you allow yourself the freedom to admit that your fears are not in your hands. And it is well with your soul. 

Do you see, then, what happens to your fears? They are disarmed. They are calmed. They go from causing raging pain to being a side thought. They get demoted. 

You see, our fears are not trustworthy. They are not based on truth, they do not know facts, and they are guilty of vast exaggeration. Our fears do not love us and they take no account of our pain or our sorrow. Our fears are unworthy of our attention. They do not deserve the deepest parts of us, nor do they deserve our allegiance. 

Instead, we offer our attention and our allegiance to God, who is trustworthy, who is truth, and whose promises are real. We turn to look at our fears. In this process of facing them and sizing them up, we realize how small they are in comparison to the greatness that is ours through Christ. Once we gaze upon our fears with honest indignation, we can see that, yes, God is even bigger than the worst thing we can imagine. And he is in control.

What is something you are trying to control today? Is it something that is possible to control? Why or why not?