3 Truths When Life Feels Out of Control
Summer always wreaks havoc on our routines and schedules. Every week is different with vacations, swim lessons, and summer camps. Our days smell of sunscreen, hose water, and sticky popsicles. I want to savor the slow afternoons spent running around the backyard or curled up watching a movie. Yet my work deadlines don’t slow down, and neither do my kids’ appetites. The laundry continues to pile up with beach towels and swimsuits. I make packing lists, pack, and unpack—only to do it again the next week. As much joy as summer brings, I often feel like life is out of control.
As a woman who craves routine and structure, I search for ways to control these chaotic summer days. I scroll Etsy for a chore chart. I search for kids’ activities on Pinterest. I spend too much time in Excel trying to finagle the perfect daily routine. I begin my morning hovering over my color-coded planner.
While these systems and routines can be good, they often reveal a deeper idol of control in my life. I’m tempted to worship the created thing—order—rather than worship the Creator who brought order to the universe and brings order to my life. However, when I grasp for control beyond my reach, I’m believing a lie about who I am and who God is. I must continually replace the lies of the Enemy with the steadfast truth of God.
Lie: The more I know, the more I’m in control.
Truth: God is all-knowing.
I always intend to read my Bible first thing in morning, but my hands often reach for my phone as soon as I get out of bed. I check my email, read the headlines, and look up the weather. I gather as much information as I can before I begin my day. If I know everything about today, then everything will go as I plan. How ridiculous to think that by knowing what’s happening on the other side of the world and when it’s going to rain, then I will more control over my day!
Like Eve, I hunger for more knowledge that can make me like God—that can give me control over my life. Yet this self-sufficient knowledge only leads to suffering and death. David knew we could never reach God’s perfect understanding, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it” (Psalm 139:6). His inability to know everything didn’t lead David to hopelessness, but to worship. Because only God is all-knowing, we are freed from the constant pressure to research, learn, and plan more.
While God has given us minds that learn and use knowledge, only he can know all things. And he promises to give us wisdom when we need it (James 1:5). I don’t have to worry about knowing it all, because the God who knows everything intimately knows me. I can trust he is in control because only God has perfect knowledge.
Lie: I can do it all.
Truth: God is infinite.
Despite the extended sunlight of summer days, eventually I must go to sleep. I leave dishes in the sink and clothes in the washer. I close my computer with articles unwritten and emails unsent. I take one last glance at my bottomless to-do list and shake my head. If I just had more time, more energy, I could get everything done. I believe the only limits to my productivity is my waking hours.
It is not a defect that our days, bodies, and minds are limited. They are an essential part of being a creature, created to rely on our Creator. While our ability and days are limited, God is limitless. He is infinite: “Before … you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God” (Psalm 90:2). In this psalm, Moses humbly asks God to “teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). The man who led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, and to the border of the Promised Land knew that he could not do it all. He trusted the infinite God could “establish the work of our hands” (Psalm 90:17).
When we admit that we can’t do it all, we release unrealistic expectations which God never placed upon us. We can obey the tasks he put within our limited control, entrusting the rest to him. He does not berate us for our limits, but delights when we depend on his infinite control.
Lie: I must hold everything together.
Truth: God is sovereign.
It’s relatively easy to control the life of my youngest child. She relies on me completely to feed her, change her, and put her to sleep. But as my children get older, I come to realize how little control I actually have. Still, I often play at sovereignty—barking orders, demanding obedience, and enforcing routines. But no matter how tightly I hold on, something always slips through the cracks. When I erroneously believe I have control over everything in my life, I heap extra burdens on myself and others which God never meant for us to carry. I lie awake at sleep each night wondering how I can keep it all together.
In contrast, King David rested in God’s sovereign protection over his life. Even in the most perilous moments of his life, David wrote, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8). Even when he was being chased by his enemies and hiding in a cave, David could rest secure. Because David knew he was not ultimately in control. He knew his enemies were not ultimately in control. Only God was sovereign.
The cure to my anxious heart is not better laid plans. It’s trusting in God’s good and gracious sovereignty. The God who holds the entire universe is also holding me. The God who traces the path of planets is also guiding my steps. The God who wove together the story of redemption is also writing my story. Like David, I can rest at ease when I truly believe God is sovereignly in control.
God is in Control
These are only a few truths about God that can give us hope when we feel out of control. God is in control can seem like a pithy platitude. But when we know who God is—he is omniscient, infinite, sovereign, good, faithful, omnipresent, and so much more—then the statement has power.
When I wake up and my mind immediately begins to spin with plans and contingency plans, I can surrender my anxiety to the God who knows all things. When I’m exhausted after trying to do it all, I can rest knowing my infinite Creator has given me good limits. When I feel the weight to hold everything together, I can surrender my burdens to the God who sovereignly holds the whole world and my life together.
“God is in control” is not a cliché. That truth is my anchor of hope in these tumultuous days. When I feel like life is out of control, rather than tighten my grip on my illusive control, I can hold fast to the God who is omniscient, infinite, and sovereign. I don’t have to be in control, because he already is.
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