Control Is An Idol
There’s one thing that God has revealed to me over the past couple weeks during this pandemic stay-at-home order. I value a comfortable lifestyle. Can you relate with me here? I like my routines and way of life. Who doesn’t?
I don’t think there’s nothing wrong in that. What’s wrong is when I get angered that it’s been disrupted because it was mandated so. It’s out of my control. That’s the frustrating part. Do you have similar feelings like I do?
Why am I frustrated and disturbed? Really why?
Because I can’t sit at my local coffee shop and relax with a cup?
Because I can’t go to the gym?
Because I can’t get a haircut? Ok well I’m bald, but you get what I mean.
I’ve got toilet paper, but… Because I can’t find any paper towels?
Because ___________?
Because I am not the one in control. BINGO!!
My comfort and lifestyle became something so valuable to me that I allowed it to become important enough to me to compete with Christ. My life and my controlled comforts became my idol. That’s my problem. Now it’s out there. I’ve named it.
Can you empathize?
This pandemic put a full stop to all of our normal comforts and routines. The fact that this happened devastated us all, globally. The way I’m looking at it is that God is using it to press the pause button on my life and show me the areas that I still have been holding onto for myself and are not yet fully surrendered to Him. He wants me to know that He is in control… of everything… and I don’t need to be. How hard is it to think this way?
Here’s a key scripture passage that helps me frame perspective how to think during situations like this and when I feel like I need to control what’s happening in my day to day.
“Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’” James 4:14-15 NASB
Isn't that such a good reminder of who truly has the control? It’s not us. Think about it for a moment. If we had the control then a microscopic organism wouldn’t be wreaking havoc all across our globe that literally brings people to their knees to cripple them in an instant. Now that’s some power that we certainly don’t have or could have anticipated (all political commentary aside). But theologically, we ought not fear illness, death, or lack of control “because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4b). This is the perspective that I need.
LET’S PRAY
God forgive us for making control, comfort, routine, and lifestyle idols in place of you. Help us to put the control back into your hands where it belongs. Help us see our fears and collapse them in front of our eyes for the comfort and hope we find only in you. Help us to cling to you for strength and surrender. We desperately need your intervention. Use this crisis situation, and the ensuing chaos that is out of our control, to be a catalyst for a major heart change in how we are each more motivated to serve you in a greater capacity as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1-2) for you Lord. In Jesus name amen!
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