Yes, I know I used Ebonics in the title but that was the point. Sometimes we want control. For awhile I thought that was what I needed for my life. In high school, it was a big need to have control but as college kept progressing I realized that I was never in control. The moment I gave my life to Christ I had given God sovereign control. He needed me to know that He had it in control.
This will probably be one of the longest posts I ever post. To get to the point though, these past few years at college have shown me (very gradually) that God is in control no matter what. I used to stress a LOT. I put way too much pressure on myself to be perfect, hit a certain expectation within a certain time frame, and try to do things on my own with as little help as possible. The shift my life was taking could no longer allow for that. It took a trip to South America, a different way of living, to let me truly relinquish control to Him.
Most times you look on social media and so many people are talking about grinding and working. Sometimes God has to redefine what that looks like. Faith without works is dead. That’s true. I always thought it meant you had to be physically doing something and appear that something is happening but that wasn’t necessarily true. It’s like when you’re an athlete you can’t have a hard workout day every single day of the week. You need recovery days. Although it feels like you’re doing nothing your body is healing and building new strength from the work it has been doing. You can’t see your body getting stronger but it’s happening.
Sometimes God wants you to take your hands off of something. You can work it out as much as you want to but until you give Him control it will stay right where it is. You end up wasting energy that could have been spent focused on drawing closer to Him and focusing on other matters. He used this to build my strength and trust. It still challenges me to this day with every new test and trial that increases my dependence on Him. Sometimes when we’re stuck we have to ask ourselves if we’re trying to be the God of our life. God will be right there ready to take the reigns again so He can lead you to what He had in mind. Something bigger, something better, and something brighter. It may not always be easy and it may not always be clear or comfortable, but it will always bring God glory. That’s what’s most important.