“He is good, and He is trustworthy, my friend. Release your grip and see what He will do. ”
If you’re anything like me, you crave control. Whether it be within your own life and personal outcomes, or the decisions of those around you; there is a burning desire within you to make things go your way. I like to think of myself as a recovered control freak but let’s be real—I can still colour coordinate with the best of them.
I realize that my constant need to control comes from a deep place within me that doesn’t truly trust in God’s goodness. The reality is, I believe that I know better than God. I find myself in the ruins of crushed expectations and I wonder why God can’t seem to align his will with mine. A relationship crumbles that you thought would always be there. The door closes on a job opportunity you thought you were the perfect fit for. The dreams you had for your life/career/family are entirely out of reach and time doesn’t seem to be slowing down.
You find yourself feeling rejected, beaten down, and lost living in the tension between what you pictured for yourself and the reality of the moment.
The truth about control is that it is a complete façade. Even the few things that I convince myself are within my grasp are actually far more out of my hands than I want to believe. What does it look like to acknowledge that my circumstances are in the hands of a good God who is always doing what is best for me, even when I don’t feel it? I am slowly learning what it means to trust that I will be okay even when reality doesn’t look the way I want it to. When I am tempted to white knuckle onto things I know I need to let go of, I must remember that God is calling me to loosen my grip and open my hands to the things he has set before me.
Scripture says, “…we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.” (Romans 8:28 AMP). A life rooted in this understanding allows us to venture into the unknown world of surrender with confidence. This doesn’t mean that we regard life with indifference and apathy, we instead choose to believe that the Father’s hand is in all things, even the mistakes, setbacks, and wrinkles in our plans.
Surrender requires a raw vulnerability and it’s not easy. It involves making a daily choice to trade my predisposition for control for a conscious trust in His good will. I’m definitely not a master at this yet. Far from it in fact. I find myself groping in the dark for some measure of control when life is uncertain and my circumstances don’t make sense to me. It is in these moments that I find myself praying a similar prayer to that of Jesus, “Not my will, but yours be done…” (Luke 22:42).
We find freedom when we learn what it means to release our expectations to the God who is faithful to see us through. Even when life doesn’t go our way, we can confidently trust that He is molding us more into his likeness.
He is good, and He is trustworthy, my friend. Release your grip and see what He will do.
—Written by Riley Larmour