Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: THE WHOLE WORLD IN GOD’S HANDS (not the song) (05/28/15)
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TITLE: "I Got This...Not! | Previous Challenge Entry
By Marilyn K. Smith
06/01/15 -
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He looked at the officer in astonishment, all the while staggering. Then in a slurred voice, replied, “Mister, you will have to ask the fellow that was driving that car.”
Control of one’s circumstances is one of man’s greatest desires but also one of his biggest failures. Every day there are those who have made it to the pinnacle of the business world who feel that they have arrived in that high and lofty place by being able to control the circumstances of their lives. People in the business world are not only ones who strive to put their world in a certain order. Regular folks in mid-America, as well as people all over our world, allow this drive to overtake them. Manipulation has become, in many lives, a favorite pastime.
A person who strives to control others can present as an “out-and-out loud and in-your-face” controller or a subtle, but pleasant, deceiver. This type of personality can even become so consuming as to be identified as Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Fear is in charge here. Fear that they will lose control only drives them to struggle harder to have their own way. People with this disorder absolutely have to be in control of everything and everybody around them. This disorder often wrecks their lives and the lives of the ones who love them. They usually manage to destroy most of their relationships with others. Either the other person cannot survive being in this relationship, under total micro-management, or they are continually, but unsuccessfully, trying to please this individual. It is quite an oppressive existence for all those within living or working space of the controlling person.
The exact opposite of this type of situation is freedom: pure free will. Free-will is like a deep breath of fresh air. Free-will is exhilarating, joyful, restful and praiseworthy. This is the environment of our Heavenly Father. He chose to allow us to live in free-will, always beside us and in us, ready to answer when we call on Him.
Free-will for us humans does have its challenges, however. Most of our difficulties are the direct result of making wrong choices. This result comes about because we are free to make our own choices but often do not choose the plan that God has for us. Instead of seeking God’s will, we choose what we feel is the correct choice.
The ministry of Celebrate Recovery is a Christ-centered twelve step world-wide program. It is for anyone with habits, hang-ups and addictions and began in Saddleback Church in California. In Step 1 of the twelve steps it states, “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.” Romans 7:18 is the Biblical comparison for this step; “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. Step 3 acts as a “lifeboat” for the rough seas of decision-making in life: “We made a decision to turn our lives and our wills over to the care of God.”
In order to get our lives in order, we must admit that we can’t straighten out our own lives. Then we must make the decision to turn our will over to the care of God. We must put all we are, all we do and everything we have in the hands of God. Then and only then will we start to see ourselves as we really are and realize that only God is the answer to life.
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