Confession Alert, Dangerous Living Ahead

Confession Alert, Dangerous Living Ahead

Dangerous living. I confess that’s what I’ve been doing. Dangerously focused on self and doing the “right” thing more than doing it in the perfect will of God.

Let’s take a pause. Fall in deep here and contemplate the perfect will of God. His boundless reservoir of wisdom, love, and sovereignty is available to us. His will, will never leave us barren. Why do we seek something different? What could we possibly obtain that has more value?

Confessions alert= I’ve been unknowingly focused on self. Self-wisdom hiding behind what I saw as human logic, self-love hiding behind what I saw as my limitations, laziness hidden behind what I thought was prudent thinking. I could continue to list my excuses, but I hope by now you might be making your own list of excuses or assumptions that you use to justify your desire to control you and your loved one’s lives.

And finally, here is the vision I had concerning how God saw my dangerous living.

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I saw a very complex machine that appeared to be miles long. I could not see the end of it. It was made of a set of rails from a railroad track, but bent anything but straight. Every few feet I saw that one side of the railing ran zig-zag bent and formed, fitting perfectly into the other side.

But no two zig-zag designs were the same. The whole machinery did not go up and down, but slid from side to side creating a frightening amount of friction causing sparks. It sped up to a dizzying frenzy. I become acutely aware if something went a millimeter off, it would be a disastrous. How could a person try to sustain this precision? The answer is that they could not. A single grain of sand could alter the trajectory of the machine.

***

Of course, the question then became what am I supposed to do with this? I barely dared to breathe knowing that anything could easily destroy the bizarre machine.  What am I learning and what am I supposed to do?

God instructed me to repent of selfish ambition, both my husband and myself. Agree to God’s terms of full surrender of our lives—all aspects. Do not negotiate to keep any of it.

Had I been negotiating with God to try to keep “control”? No doubt, yes. This compulsory need to control is an ongoing thing that the Lord keeps working out of me.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is within you, whom you have [received as a gift] from God, and that you are not your own [property]? You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honor and glorify God with your body. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20, AMP)

The vision helped me to see what a dangerous and preposterous plan it is to try to move or tweak one thing in our life which will then have unknown and possibly catastrophic consequences on other portions of our lives and the lives of those that we love. And the friction of two opposing forces send sparks that threaten to ignite a fire.

I don’t know anything else to do but to pray that He continues to help me trust immediately in His plan and wisdom and stop my meddling.

Have you found a strategy that helps you instantly snap out of your tendency to try to control your life? If so, I would love to hear it.

Prayer for you and me: Lord Jesus, grant me the gift of immediate and complete obedience to Christ. I lay down my desire to control and ask for Your help to keep my mind and hands from meddling with Your perfect will. Continue to teach me and meet me right where I am at. Thank You, for Your infinite generosity and faithfulness. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Amen.