NOVEMBER 2022
Is God Really In Control Of Your Life?
There are so many promises and invitations for us in the Bible, that we ought to make sure we are aware of and responding to them. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1 v 3; that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. This means that if we don't know how to partake of this, we are only short-changing ourselves, and living in a place of lack when Father God promised us abundance. I often say that it's a bit like travelling to a new country with an all inclusive expenses paid for the accommodation and feeding before you go and buying the book that just tells you about their currency, but not buying any currency. You find that you really will not enjoy your trip like you should.
The invitation that I would like to highlight today is found in Matthew 11 v 28-30. Here, Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome, and My burden is light and easy to be borne.
Jesus's invitation to us to come to Him, recognises from His perspective, that we are in need of His help. This also is why He taught us, what we refer to as the Lord's Prayer, as seen in Matthew 6 v 9-13, "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name…" He knows that we are burdened, and that our brains are carrying far more than they were made to. He tells us that we need rest because He knows in creating us, He didn't really wire us to carry all that we try to carry.
So what do we have in our minds when we come to Him. Do we begin from a place that we are sinners so even the ability to approach Him was enabled by Him asking Jesus to go to the Cross, so we are forgiven, and His blood pleads for us so we enter in. Do we realise we are not equal partners with God so it's not to come and tell Him all we want to do and ask Him to stand by and walk with us or bless what we want to do.
Our challenges are so big, we need God's wisdom, we need the great I Am, we need His Power. We don't need an equal person like us.
We need Someone who can fix our problems. We need a Miracle Worker, a Covenant – keeping God. We need a Provider, a Healer, we need one to love us. We need one to give us peace. We need one to Shepherd us. We need one to be our Righteous Judge. We need a Lord Almighty who is Present.
We need one who can change hearts, who can finish what He has begun in us and is able to present us before our Heavenly Father on the Throne without fault and with great joy in His Presence. We need God Almighty, the One who we trust and depend upon in Africa because without Him, we would not be alive. See how He came to protect and heal us during covid and more developed nations were wondering how come we survived so well. See how He protects us from the ill effects of climate change so we are not destroyed.
He invites us to lay all our challenges in His Hands and spend time in His love so we leave with His peace.
We need to give some thought about who God Almighty really is to us. This is important because what we think and believe about Him, informs how we respond to Him, and our relationship with Him. It determines whether we give control of our lives to Him. He desires that we draw near to Him (as in the invitation in Matthew above) and enter into a loving relationship with Him that will give us rest. He desires we bring our heavy burdens and take His easy yoke. What an exchange with the All-knowing God.
If we think we are in a bargaining position or if we think we have control over Him, or He needs us to tell Him how to sort things out, it means we want to be in the driving seat of our relationship with God as opposed to having Him lead or drive us, so we follow. We then find that we may loose our peace because our hearts can not cope with these excessive pressures.
If we think that we know better than He does, or He is helpless until we provide our input, then we may find our relationship distorted. We need to get to the place where we know we are not in control, so ought to resign from the CEO position in charge of the whole world, and allow the Almighty, who knows the end from the beginning to take full and complete control. It's best to get to know God Almighty for who He is, enter into relationship so His power flows through us and then we will find we can respond accordingly. This then changes everything.
Prayer….Dear Father, I am so sorry that I have not trusted you enough to hand over full control of my life and life's challenges to you. Please forgive me.
Today, I accept that I can not succeed in this journey unless I allow you lead me. I hand you full control of my life. I ask you to put your easy yolk in my Hand, and you take care of all my burdens such as…….
Cause me to rest in you and be at peace.
Thank you so much, for in Jesus's peerless Name I pray.
Amen.
God Bless You,
Mina Bajomo
