Are You in Control? Have you lost control? (Joel 3 - Amos 6)
Have you ever met someone and walked away impressed that their life was so buttoned up? They seemed to have everything in order: their marriage, kids, orderliness, cleanliness, etc.
As Christians, we can often portray this sense of control over our lives, but are we actually in control? Is that a bad thing?
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Have you ever met someone and walked away impressed that their life was so buttoned up? They seemed to have everything in order: their marriage, kids, orderliness, cleanliness, etc.
As Christians, we can often portray this sense of control over our lives, but are we actually in control? Is that a bad thing?
It’s never too late to start!
Download your first two weeks free by signing up below (or buy Book One of the Family Bible Plan)!
Q and A time...
Is it bad to present yourself well? No.
Okay, what about living an organized and structured life? Of course not.
How about making sure you and your family dress nice? Not necessarily.
Decorating your house just so? Likely not.
Let’s not misread the intent. Is it bad to do those things? No. Can it lead to sinful behavior? Yup.
Consider this question, if you couldn’t present you and your family as a wholesome, clean family with name-brand clothes, your house is a mess, you’re late all the time, and your house has more projects than you can count… would you feel in control?
In control of your life...
We need to ensure that the stuff we have and accumulate does not grow to a level of worship.
If you would feel out of control if it seems your life is in a chaotic tailspin that is likely a very normal feeling. But it is also there where you can realize on a much deeper level that God IS in control. He gives us more than we can handle sometimes, and for that purpose!
It isn’t exactly recommended to let your life slide into a state of frenzy for this sake, but it is good to keep in mind that while you are capable of some measure of control, it ultimately could be stripped away at any moment. You need to settle for yourself, where your heart lies.
Israelites in control...
The Israelites (both northern and southern kingdoms) had disillusioned themselves that they were in control. They turned God into a patsy, only using Him when they wanted a favorable outcome for their future.
They busied their lives with their ‘in control’ appearances that they left out the One who actually is in control.
Wealth and opulence...
A lot of the Israelites were doing well. They had summer houses and mansions filled with plunder and loot.
Well, except that “[t]he prosperity of Israel’s wealthy depended on oppression and robbery.” So there’s that.
It wasn’t just an apathetic relationship but one that grew into idol worship, outright disobedience, and mistreatment of those around them.
Chance after chance...
In our quest to know God more, it is IMPERATIVE we seek to understand His sovereignty. While I don’t think we will ever understand the completeness of His sovereign status, we lack much when we limit it, downplay it, or worse, ignore it.
When we start to understand that He is in control over everything, our perspective changes in the circumstances we experience.
See, God is a just God, but He is also full of exceeding amounts of mercy.
When trials come...
Amos 4:6-11 walks through a couple specific trials God led the Israelites through. Similar to the mission Hosea had when he was commanded to send Gomer away, the intent was for them to return to him.
- empty stomachs
- withholding rain near harvesttime
- rain on one city/field, not the next
- some had to travel just for drinking water
- blight and mildew in gardens/vineyards (their source of food)
- locusts devouring their fig and olive trees
- pestilence
- young men died fighting
- horses carried away
- overthrew some like Sodom and Gomorrah
Return to me...
Five times in chapter 4 alone does it say God’s message: “yet, you did not return to me.”
Look over all of the details of what God has control over. His ultimate sovereignty automatically deserves our allegiance and obedience.
It can be easy to forget God’ control over the earth. Mother Nature is a joke. God is in complete control! Every blow of wind, every drop of rain, every insect… everything!
Return to me… it is a call in our life when we go through trials. What are they designed to do? Turn our anger against God or turn our hearts toward Him?
Woe to the complacent...
The Israelites refused correction or reproof.
They had created their own God and replaced Him with idols, complacency, and hedonistic self-love.
Their motives were impure and uncorrectable. But they didn’t care.
In control...
The trials came for the Israelites, after warnings, reproofs, trials, prophets, and more. God wanted them to turn from their pursuit of self to pursuit of what really mattered.
When they refused time and time again, He gave them over to it and allowed consequences to come their way.
Only God is truly in control! While we can and do control some things in life, we best step back to understand it is only THROUGH Him that we are doing so.
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