Control
“O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.” Psalm 115:9
I love to feel like I’m in control. I expect things to work the way they are supposed to work. When they don’t, I can get pretty upset.
My family knows that I don’t really have a lot of patience for certain electronics, particularly the DVD player in my minivan—the Hamby Family Truckster. I can’t remember a single time that this DVD player has cooperated for me. My husband and my children can get it to work almost every time. It has a remote and when I press the buttons – pressing play, pressing off, pressing play, pressing off – it doesn’t work. I really can’t even tell if it’s on or off. I often think that the batteries are dead when really it’s just not on. I’ve accidentally left the DVD player on and killed the car battery. Just thinking about this DVD player makes me cringe. I’ve been known to lose my temper more than once with this device. I want it to work when I want it to work. When it doesn’t work properly, I lose control. I want to control it – but it ends up controlling me.
God is in control of everything. He is sovereign over all that he has made. Not only is God the creator of all things but He is also the sustainer of all things as well.
Luke 12 says: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows…Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!”
God rules over the minutest details of the world He has made. God is trustworthy and there is no better place to be than under his sovereign care. He always has our best interest in mind and is working all things for the good of those who are part of His family.
“Said the Robin to the Sparrow, ‘I should really like to know Why these anxious human beings Rush about and hurry so.’
“Said the Sparrow to the Robin, ‘Friend, I think that it must be That they have no Heavenly Father Such as cares for you and me.’”
–Elizabeth Cheney, 1859