Mee
04-13-2007, 01:45 PM
Almost everywhere I go I hear someone say, “God is in control.” You may have heard that too. I have also heard people say, “Well, if God is in control He is certainly doing a lousy job.” I’ve heard many people many times say, “Whatever happens, it must be God’s will.” So, in other words, we are just puppets and God is the puppet master, if we get sick and die it must be God’s will. Get real! They get this lame-brained idea either from something in ‘The Lord’s Prayed’ (an old testament prayer) or from Matthew 26:42
“He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” (Matthew 26:42 King James Version) Jesus had said earlier that He, His flesh man, did not want to die but that He knew that it was right and, indeed, necessary that it be this way. He said, “not My will but Thine be done,” or to paraphrase, not what I want in the flesh but what I know in the spirit. Jesus was surrendering His earthly will, the will of a sense based man, to the Father’s will, the One Who knows the end from the beginning.
Now, when you make a mistake, contract an illness, crash in your car or whatever all because of your being foolish. You cannot legally say that it was God’s will. And, believe it or not, you really cannot blame it on the devil either. Doing those last two statements are just a lack of your taking your responsibility. No, you made the mistake so you take responsibility for your own folly. Then turn it over to God you Father and He will help you get out of it.
I had to use some credit cards to do some things; there is absolutely nothing wrong with credit cards or borrowing money. Then I went a little too far. I didn’t get to where I couldn’t make the minimum payments but they were keeping me from doing what I would have liked to do for God. I listened to the devil and thought I was hearing from God. That was my folly not God’s will. But, ya know, I did it not the devil so I took responsibility and gave control to God, I was will to take all my instructions from God concerning this area. Soon my natural dad called my and told me to send him the bills and let him take care of them. I, almost instantly, recognized that that was of God, it cleared my mind from having to pay them. And I didn’t have to use the bankruptcy claim and, possibly, ruin my credit. Bankruptcy is there as a last resort.
A long time ago I had prayed for a Toyota Camry. A few years ago I went to a Toyota dealership to check on a flyer I received in the mail. I listen to the salesman, who called himself a Christian, and bought a Camry. Now a dealership does not normally retract a deal for a used car after a week, especially when it involves a trade-in. God spoke to me while I was driving home and told me it was not what He wanted for me. Well the finance guy at the dealership could not get a good rate for me and they kept on changing the deal. Finally after a week, I had taken full responsibility because I signed the papers, I gave control over the situation to God and took my lead from Him. He told me to bring it back so I did. And, wouldn’t you know it, they totally retracted the whole deal and gave me my old car back.
There are many of you reading this and thinking, “Well, he sure has good luck.” Forget luck. As a character in a book I read would say, “We don’t do luck.” (The book is from the Left Behind series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins). No, it was because I took responsibility and gave control of the situation to God, and then listened to God’s directions and did them.
Some people have said they gave total control over their lives to God. But those same people are having such a hard time dealing with certain things in their lives. Will, that’s because they haven’t really given He control, they aren’t taking His lead, not listening to Him about that certain issue. When you give God control of a certain issue what you are saying is, “God I’m going to listen to you and do what you tell me to do.” He will lead you if you will follow. Some have said that and then listened to ungodly advice, failed to ask God if that advice was right, and failed, and then blamed God! Now, was it God’s fault or whose was it?
The devil casts thoughts at you, he does that to everyone, he will tell you what to do, he will even try to impersonate God. But he cannot make you do anything that you don’t want to do. God will give you good advice but even He cannot make you do anything that you don’t want to do. The one who has ultimate responsibility for your actions is you. So whether you do something right or wrong, take this godly advice, take responsibility for you own actions and don’t say, “Well, they made me do it.” Then you can give it to God, give Him control of the situation. But when you give Him control of the situation you are going to have to let Him advise you and you will have to take His advice, and do it.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2 New International Version)
What Paul was saying in those verses is, and I paraphrase, “God has mercy on you so give yourselves totally to Him. When you put Him in control do not gravitate back to taking ungodly advice and doing it like the world does. But every time anyone gives you advice you must take it to God in prayer and read His Word. By doing this you will know what He wants you to do. This is His will for you.”
“He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” (Matthew 26:42 King James Version) Jesus had said earlier that He, His flesh man, did not want to die but that He knew that it was right and, indeed, necessary that it be this way. He said, “not My will but Thine be done,” or to paraphrase, not what I want in the flesh but what I know in the spirit. Jesus was surrendering His earthly will, the will of a sense based man, to the Father’s will, the One Who knows the end from the beginning.
Now, when you make a mistake, contract an illness, crash in your car or whatever all because of your being foolish. You cannot legally say that it was God’s will. And, believe it or not, you really cannot blame it on the devil either. Doing those last two statements are just a lack of your taking your responsibility. No, you made the mistake so you take responsibility for your own folly. Then turn it over to God you Father and He will help you get out of it.
I had to use some credit cards to do some things; there is absolutely nothing wrong with credit cards or borrowing money. Then I went a little too far. I didn’t get to where I couldn’t make the minimum payments but they were keeping me from doing what I would have liked to do for God. I listened to the devil and thought I was hearing from God. That was my folly not God’s will. But, ya know, I did it not the devil so I took responsibility and gave control to God, I was will to take all my instructions from God concerning this area. Soon my natural dad called my and told me to send him the bills and let him take care of them. I, almost instantly, recognized that that was of God, it cleared my mind from having to pay them. And I didn’t have to use the bankruptcy claim and, possibly, ruin my credit. Bankruptcy is there as a last resort.
A long time ago I had prayed for a Toyota Camry. A few years ago I went to a Toyota dealership to check on a flyer I received in the mail. I listen to the salesman, who called himself a Christian, and bought a Camry. Now a dealership does not normally retract a deal for a used car after a week, especially when it involves a trade-in. God spoke to me while I was driving home and told me it was not what He wanted for me. Well the finance guy at the dealership could not get a good rate for me and they kept on changing the deal. Finally after a week, I had taken full responsibility because I signed the papers, I gave control over the situation to God and took my lead from Him. He told me to bring it back so I did. And, wouldn’t you know it, they totally retracted the whole deal and gave me my old car back.
There are many of you reading this and thinking, “Well, he sure has good luck.” Forget luck. As a character in a book I read would say, “We don’t do luck.” (The book is from the Left Behind series by Tim Lahaye and Jerry Jenkins). No, it was because I took responsibility and gave control of the situation to God, and then listened to God’s directions and did them.
Some people have said they gave total control over their lives to God. But those same people are having such a hard time dealing with certain things in their lives. Will, that’s because they haven’t really given He control, they aren’t taking His lead, not listening to Him about that certain issue. When you give God control of a certain issue what you are saying is, “God I’m going to listen to you and do what you tell me to do.” He will lead you if you will follow. Some have said that and then listened to ungodly advice, failed to ask God if that advice was right, and failed, and then blamed God! Now, was it God’s fault or whose was it?
The devil casts thoughts at you, he does that to everyone, he will tell you what to do, he will even try to impersonate God. But he cannot make you do anything that you don’t want to do. God will give you good advice but even He cannot make you do anything that you don’t want to do. The one who has ultimate responsibility for your actions is you. So whether you do something right or wrong, take this godly advice, take responsibility for you own actions and don’t say, “Well, they made me do it.” Then you can give it to God, give Him control of the situation. But when you give Him control of the situation you are going to have to let Him advise you and you will have to take His advice, and do it.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:1-2 New International Version)
What Paul was saying in those verses is, and I paraphrase, “God has mercy on you so give yourselves totally to Him. When you put Him in control do not gravitate back to taking ungodly advice and doing it like the world does. But every time anyone gives you advice you must take it to God in prayer and read His Word. By doing this you will know what He wants you to do. This is His will for you.”